XCampus
by KyronP
Summary: AU-Please READ & Review! In a much simpler Marvel Universe, the children of many classic Marvel/X-Men characters are prepping to take their rightful place as the next generation of heroes. Who makes the cut? Especially when there are a whole new set of villains ready to pick up where their predecessors left off...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_God, I hate this place_.

Sixteen-year-old Rachel Grey-Summers pulled her sheets over her face, knowing that it was more than a little extreme to hate the school. But she was mad because she couldn't sleep. And she knew that she couldn't sleep because she really hated Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning because it was this big, ugly, old building in Upstate New York away from her friends and her life back in Manhattan. There she was the daughter of influential model-turned-Editor-at-Large Jean Grey-Summers; she was a junior socialite; she'd attended Nightingale-Bamford School on Manhattan's Upper East Side, which wasn't that far from her own Fifth Avenue spread.

Essentially, life was perfect.

But then her mom had been offered the job of the century: Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue. She couldn't pass that up. But Rachel only had one more year at school before she would be going off to college so it wouldn't have been a great idea to take her along. So the next best thing was to send Rachel up to Westchester to wait out her senior year until she could go off to college.

Feeling more than a little lonely, she pulled her sheets off of her and dived out of her bed. She scrutinized her reflection in the mirror: her shoulder-length, red hair was shimmering in the faint moonlight that was streaming through the window; her long-lashed, green eyes glowed; she even managed to look a little sexy in the tight, pink T-shirt and red shorts that she always threw on to sleep in.

She looked good enough to go see Frankie.

Rachel slipped on her flip flops, which were at the foot of her bed, and then tried her hardest to tip-toe out of the room but…

"Rach?"

Rachel exhaled heavily and rolled her eyes. "Yes?"

"Where are you going?" asked Ruby, sitting up in her bed, which was on the opposite side of the room. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, her long, light-brown hair falling in messy tumbles around her slender shoulders. Ruby looked over at the digital clock blinking on her nightstand. "It's late. Three in the morning. You should really go back to bed."

"What are you?" snarled Rachel. "The freakin' estate police? So a girl can't just go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Huh? Do I have to get permission for that?"

Ruby raised her arms up defensively. "Sorry. Just trying to be a good big sister."

"Okay, you're older than me by one day, Ruby," countered Rachel, rolling her eyes. "So don't make a big deal out of it."

She hated when people referred to Ruby as her 'older sister'. In fact, Rachel was okay living under the premise that she and Ruby weren't related in the first place. She hated Ruby and Ruby's mother, Emma aka The Woman Who Stole Her Father From Her Mother but she really, really hated her father, Scott aka The Douche Bag Who Wanted To Get Stolen. And he was so disgusting with it too.

Emma, Rachel's mom Jean and Rachel's father Scott all lived in this very house together and all served as members of the X-Men. Apparently he'd found himself in love with two women and had slept with each of them and both women got pregnant around the same time and, thus, made their daughters at the same time.

After Rachel was born, however, Jean had left the Institute and had pursued a career in Fashion Journalism. She'd allowed Rachel to go up to Westchester for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Summer Breaks if she wanted. But Rachel stopped going as often when she was fourteen because she hated trying to pretend that everything was just peachy in the Summers family when they were totally far from.

"Sorry," said Ruby again, lying back down and pulling her sheets up to her chin.

Rachel felt kind of bad for being so mean to Ruby; after all, it wasn't her fault that their dad was a schmuck and her mom had no values. Rachel hadn't exactly been nice to her since she'd come to Westchester in June. And it was almost the end of August now. They were both turning seventeen next week. Maybe that should be her gift to Ruby: actually being nice to her for a change.

She turned on her heel and headed towards the door, using her telekinesis to pull it open and, when she walked through, using her powers to close it behind her.

Rachel bounded down the corridor and turned down another. At the end of the hall was Frankie's room. They were probably going to have to make the best of the next couple of days because come September, when the new kids came in, he was more than likely to get a roommate or two. Then they would have to reorganize their late night rendezvous.

She lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in."

She opened up and the room was pitch black. Frankie hadn't even moved his curtains to allow some of the moonlight to stream in. She closed the door behind her and switched on the light.

"Take that off," he instructed, pulling his sheets over his head. "God, Rachel. That's disgusting. I'll turn on the lamp here."

Rachel listened and he followed suit after she turned off the light.

"Now get over here."

She practically ran over to him and crawled onto the bed, placing her head on his strong chest and inhaling the familiar scent of his Perry Ellis for Men. It was the only cologne that he ever wore so it was almost like he sweat it. She loved that scent. She loved his strong arms as they wrapped around her; she loved his full, red lips as they kissed her pale, porcelain cheek; she loved his messy, sandy-blonde hair as he ran his fingers through it; she loved his sky-blue eyes as they looked into her face, making her feel self-conscious.

She loved Franklin Benjamin Richards.

Rachel knew that the only reason she was staying sane right now was that her boyfriend had given up living with his parents—world-class superheroes Reed and Susan Richards of The Fantastic Four—to accompany his girlfriend to the Institute. Their mothers often meet at Frankie's apartment in New York landmark The Baxter Building for brunch so they'd pretty much grown up together. Rachel liked to think that they were just meant to be.

Just like Rachel, Frankie was a mutant. Frankie didn't have to come to Xavier's to learn to control his abilities. His father was more than capable of helping him, much in the way that Jean was Rachel's mentor, which subsidized for her not having to attend Xavier's as well.

"I heard what you were thinking," he whispered, rolling some of her red hair around his finger. "While you were still in bed. Why do you hate this place so much? Have you even given it a chance? Some of the people here are really nice. And I can't wait to meet all the other kids, the new and old students coming in September. I think it'll be great."

Rachel didn't know what was pissing her off more: the fact that he was trying to get her to like it here or the fact that he was in her head. But they shared a psionic link. She rarely ever ventured into his mind because she thought that it was a little intrusive. But she'd programmed it for when he was in danger.

"For a telepath," she said, looking up into his gorgeous, sun-kissed face, "you sure do skim the surface of things."

"Hm," he said finally.

She got on top of him and started to kiss him all over his face before she kissed him on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her waist, squeezing her tightly. She giggled, an involuntary response to being in his arms. When she was with Frankie she always felt so heady. She didn't know if he felt the same way but that was what he did to her.

Rachel could feel him scrambling as he tried to touch her all over her body.

Knock, knock.

They both jumped. Someone had to be seriously skilled to surprise two Psionics.

"Hide," he whispered urgently. "Go in the closet or something."

"Why?" she said defiantly. "Just chill. I'll go get it."

She came off of him and slipped back on her flip-flops before casually walking to the door and opening up.

"Oh," she said. "It's you."

It was her stepmother Emma. Emma Frost-Summers was wrapped up in a white kimono that was probably made of silk. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a high, neat ponytail and she was smiling ironically at Rachel. She was pretty, Rachel supposed, but not anywhere close to Jean. And besides: Jean was a natural beauty and, according to Jean, everything about Emma was enhanced.

"What can I do you for?" asked Rachel, folding her arms across her chest.

"It's late, Rachel," said Emma, in her friendliest tone. She looked over Rachel's shoulder. "Really late. I think you should get to bed. You two could probably hang out tomorrow."

Rachel turned to Frankie, who was leaning against his headboard with his hands cushioning his head. His biceps never looked sexier. Rachel wanted to eat him up.

"Rachel?" prodded Emma, stepping aside for Rachel to pass.

"I'll see you in the morning," said Rachel, winking at her boyfriend. She walked past Emma and used her telekinesis to slam the door as hard as possible in Emma's plastic, stupid face.

She could hear Emma's footsteps behind her and she couldn't for the life of her understand why. She was busted. It wasn't like she would go back to Frankie's room now. It was creepy enough that she'd basically been caught by her stepmother fooling around with her boyfriend at three in the morning. She didn't need to go back and rehash it with him tonight.

"Thanks for the escort service," jabbed Rachel, smirking just a little. She knew that was a low blow. Everyone knew that before Emma was this pillar of strength for the X-Men she had a history as a high-class exotic dancer at the Hellfire Club.

"No problem," said Emma good-naturedly. Rachel wondered if she was ignoring the jab or simply oblivious. But she knew better than to underestimate Emma, who she knew for a fact was much smarter than she might let on. "And let's just keep this between us, right? Dad was already a little…concerned about Frankie coming up with you in the first place. This would just make things worse. He'd be on you two like white on rice."

"Well you have a good night now," said Rachel, opening her door. "I'll see you in the morning." She closed the door behind her.

_The gall of this Emma Frost_, thought Rachel, getting into her bed and looking up at the ceiling. _Trying to keep secrets for me. Is that supposed to make us get closer or something? Because it doesn't. I honestly couldn't care less about what Dad sees from what he doesn't. He means very little to me._

_That was scary_, she heard Frankie say in her head. _I mean, she's your mom_.

_Stepmom_, corrected Rachel, pulling her sheets up to her neck and sighing heavily. _And whatever. Wanna meet up on the Astral Plane? Fool around a little?_

_Meet you there…_

Rachel chuckled and closed her eyes, allowing her mind to drift into that magical, mystical paradise that was the Astral Plane. She could make it anything she wanted. And tonight she wanted it to be a forest with a bed made completely out of roses.

Frankie was standing there in his boxer shorts alone, his perfectly toned body glistening in the sunlight streaming above them.

"Hey, you," she whispered, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Hey, you," he whispered back. He wrapped his arms around her narrow hips and then he kissed her softly on the lips.

* * *

"This is it," said Elizabeth Essex. "Driver, stop here. Thank you. Victoria, pay the man."

Victoria Essex pulled out the money from her purse and paid the cabbie his fair and then followed her sisters out of the cab. The man drove off almost immediately. Victoria threw her long, dark hair over her shoulders and looked over at her sisters. They were both looking up at the tall gate, their red eyes glowing like rubies in the moonlight. They all three looked exactly the same: same long, straight, jet-black hair; same red eyes; same pale, almost grey skin; and the same red diamond etched in the middle of their foreheads.

They were the Essex Sisters.

"Why did we keep dreaming about this place?" asked Cassandra Essex. "I mean, I feel like I've been here before. Many times before too."

"And I haven't always been welcome either," added Victoria.

"Whatever the reason," said Elizabeth, "we need to maintain a low profile. This place might have an advanced security system."

All three girls smiled.

They held hands and suddenly levitated off the ground and over the gate of 1407 Graymalkin Lane, lightly landing on the other side.

"Let's lay low for a little while," said Victoria.

"Agreed," added Elizabeth.

"This place is so huge that no one could ever find us," said Cassandra. "I think we should split up. But keep in contact telepathically."

"Right," said the other two.

The three girls held hands and smiled at one another.

"We know who we're here for," said Elizabeth, looking at her sisters.

"Rachel Grey-Summers," they all said in unison.

"Whichever one gets her first will inform the rest," said Victoria. "I think she's the key to all of this." They squeezed each others' hands and then went in three very separate directions, spreading out across the estate that housed Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Azari T'Challa allowed the winds to lift him up from the top of the staircase and guide him around the sharp corner before he landed flawlessly on his feet at the bottom. He stretched his arms out wide, his heels close together, and a broad smile on his face. In his head he could hear the applause of the audience and he was relishing in it.

Or was it real clapping?

Azari turned around and saw Val Richards descending the staircase, clapping her hands and smiling. He couldn't help from thinking about how beautiful she was right then. But, then again, she was always beautiful. Val had chin-length, sandy-blonde hair and a heart-shaped face. Her pretty, almond-shaped, ocean-blue eyes were focused on him and her little button of a nose was twitching. She was dressed in the navy blue body suit and yellow boots that everyone wore when they were going to the Danger Room to practice. He was wearing the same one. And he hated it because he didn't think that it did anything for his chocolate-brown skin or short, white hair.

"I didn't know you were back, Val," he said, blinking his sky-blue eyes. "I thought you would still be in New York. There's still one more week of summer, you know."

Val shrugged nonchalantly. "I suppose so. But I was getting bored. And Mom and Dad have been in and out of the apartment doing missions and stuff. So I decided to come back. Just got in this morning actually." She looked him up and down. "Headed to the Danger Room? We can practice together."

Azari looked down at his silver Rolex, a gift from his mother for his fourteenth birthday two months ago.

"It's almost nine," he said. "We should get there. You know they'll close up till this session ends at ten."

Val nodded and they casually strode down the corridor until they got to the little elevator at the end. They got in and zoomed down to the underground level of the Institute, which housed the Danger Room and a number of other rooms associated with the X-Men. They weren't exactly allowed to go into these places because they weren't X-Men. Azari hoped to one day sit down at one of the meetings X-Man held in those rooms.

But that was another thing: was he supposed to end up being an X-Man or an Avenger? His mother, Ororo Munro aka Storm, was both. And that was why she'd sent him to Xavier's when he was thirteen, after his mutant abilities came into fruition. She said that she didn't have that opportunity when she was a girl, to train under someone. And she wasn't going to rob him of it either. She said she always remembered feeling so isolated from everyone, like she was an island and that nobody could understand.

She wanted him to know that there were kids just like him trying to deal with their abilities.

Azari's dad T'Challa thought it was a load of bullocks. As far as he was concerned, the three of them could have handled Azari's abilities as a family. Especially since his powers were a lot like Ororo's: Mrs. Frost-Summers had defined it as Atmokinesis, like his mother's. Essentially, Azari had the ability to sculpt the atmosphere to his will. He could also project electronic bolts from his fingertips. So T'Challa couldn't exactly wrap his head around what Ororo was trying to say.

But while he'd told Azari that in the comfort of Azari's bedroom at the Wakandan Embassy in Washington, he hadn't even thought about approaching Azari's mother with the topic.

Val and Azari were nearing the Danger Room and two other people were waiting to get in: Benji Blaire and Ruby Summers. They were stretching in the corridor.

"I guess we should stretch too, right?" said Val, as they approached Ruby and Benji.

Azari channeled the winds again and had them lift him up off the ground and then put him back. "Done," he said, chuckling.

Val laughed and lightly punched him on the shoulder, which didn't hurt. But it made him blush a little. He didn't know if he was good enough for a girl like Val, even though he'd been crushing on her ever since they'd known each other, which was since they were little. His parents had even taken her parents' place on the Fantastic Four for a little while many years ago so that Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman could work on their marriage.

Their families were really close.

But he didn't think he was worthy of a girl like Val. At least not yet. She deserved a hero, which he wasn't as yet. Maybe when he was finished at Xavier's and he'd joined his parents on the big stage he'd be good enough for her. Girls like Val wouldn't be impressed by the fact that he was the Prince of Wakanda. Not when her parents had saved the world at least two dozen times in their years of service to the world.

And she was sixteen and he was only fourteen. Which could be a bit of a problem too.

"Are you ready out there?" said someone through the speakers overhead.

"Yes," said Ruby, her hands on her hip. "And you're late too."

"Who is that?" asked Azari, looking over at Val. Even though she was two years older than he was, they were the same height

"X-Man," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

Azari was surprised. In the year that he'd been at Xavier's, X-Man had never been in the control room for any of his training sessions in the Danger Room. And he was always in the Danger Room. That was why he'd decided not to join his parents in Wakanda like they always did during the summer. He loved to train in the Danger Room and already he felt like he was in better control of his power.

"Four of you?" continued X-Man.

The door opened up in front of them.

"Get in," instructed X-Man.

The four of them filed in and stood up in one horizontal line in the dark room. Suddenly the lights were turned on and they were on top of a really tall, frost covered mountain and Azari realized that the temperature had dropped. Not that it was affecting him. It was more like his intuition was informing him of the change. Part of his gift was that temperature didn't affect him; he simply adjusted to whatever environment. But when he looked over at the other three, they were practically hugging their bodies and shivering.

_You poor things_, he thought.

"You're mission is to get down from this mountain," they heard X-Man say out of nowhere but from everywhere. "Good luck."

"Well that should be easy," said Azari. "I could fly us down. No big deal." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, using his abilities to stretch out for the air currents. When he latched on to a few he tried to make them lift him up…but they were way too strong. He would barely be able to hold himself up, far less for the rest of them.

"Are you doing it?" asked Benji. "Because I'm still on the ground."

Azari opened his eyes and glared at the blonde, sixteen-year-old boy.

"I think we're just going to have to power through it," said Ruby, getting in the middle of the two boys while Val, for some unexplained reason, was rubbing Benji's back like he was some kind of victim. "Like, try and climb down the mountain on our own. We could do it. And whatever obstacles we face, we deal with it then."

"Or Invisible Girl here could carry us down in a force field," suggested Benji, hugging himself. "I really need to get out of here. It's freezing."

"I can't," said Val. "And I'm _not _Invisible Girl. Anyway, I haven't mastered making floating force fields just yet. We could just end up plummeting."

Benji rolled his eyes, as if it had just dawned on him how absolutely useless Val was. Azari wanted to fly over there and punch him across the face. But Ruby was in the middle of them.

"This place is freezing," said Ruby. In the blink of an eye her skin turned red and Azari could almost see through it. She was pure ruby, just like her mother could transform into living, breathing diamond. Azari couldn't help from wondering if she'd been given that name because it was pretty or because her parents knew that she was going to have this ability. "Let's go."

Before they left Azari tried to use his powers to clear the skies a little so more of the artificial sun's warmth could come in and warm the rest of them up.

At one point they encountered a gap and they had to consider how they were going to get to the other side. Val made things easy by using her power to build an invisible bridge, which she had to cross first just to prove that it was usable. They all followed.

At another point, a huge boulder was in the way and Ruby had to lift it up and toss it over a nearby cliff so that they could pass.

At a third point there was a wall of solid rock that was even too big for Ruby to lift up so both Benji and Azari had to use their abilities to break it up into a million teeny pieces. Azari released a stream of lightning from his fingers that jolted the rock and Benji used his bio-electric waves to shatter it into a million pieces.

After what seemed like forever, they got to the bottom of the mountain.

The mountain behind them disappeared and they were in a huge, dome-like structure now: the Danger Room when it was inactive.

"Good job," they heard X-Man say from the control room high above them. "You can leave now."

They all filed out of the room. Azari looked down at his Rolex: it was ten twenty.

"I don't understand the purpose of that exercise we just did," lamented Benji, the last one to step out of the Danger Room. The door lightly closed behind him. "We didn't even really use our powers."

"Didn't you?" asked X-Man, who was coming out of the control room. "I think you did. But just not in the way you might have wanted to."

He approached them, taking long, strong steps. His footsteps thudded against the metal floor. His burgundy hair was slicked back; not a lock was out of place. He had light-brown eyes that looked at each of them in turn.

Azari had to admit that he was more than a little intimidated by X-Man, who was twice his size but only ten years his senior. X-Man wasn't in uniform or anything: he was wearing a green V-neck sweater that was rolled up at the sleeves, a pair of faded denim jeans and some brown loafers but he was still intimidating. He was at least six-two with broad shoulders and a buff body. He looked like he could beat anyone to a pulp with his bare hands: he didn't need to use his telekinesis to do that for him.

"I was expecting to do something more…dangerous," continued Benji, unperturbed. "That was pretty lame."

"Lame?" said X-Man, chuckling. "Lame. Do you want to be an X-Man, Benjamin?"

Benji shrugged. "I guess so."

"Well, sometimes your target is going to just leave you in the wilderness for dead," said X-Man, folding his arms against his muscled chest. "And you're not always going to have the Blackbird at your disposal. This was a lesson in patience."

Benji rolled his eyes again.

Sometimes Benjamin Blaire could be such an idiot, always trying to argue stupid points. Azari may not have liked the lesson but he understood the merit. And he knew better than to put up a fight with the guy who was the leader of the X-Men: X-Man aka Nate Summers. But, then again, Benji and Azari had been raised very differently, the most significant difference being that Azari actually knew his parents personally.

The story Azari had gotten from some of the students when he'd first arrived at Xavier's last year was that Benji's parents had basically left him in front of the school as a baby in a basket with a letter saying that his name was Benjamin Blaire, his parents were the intergalactic space couple Dazzler and Longshot and that Earth was much better than wherever they were. He'd basically been raised by the X-Campus family, who'd told him all about who his parents were and what they did. But Azari knew that that wouldn't have made him feel any better if his parents had abandoned him while they were just gallivanting through the universe.

"Whatever," said Ruby, trying to calm things down. "I'm tired. And I think, for making me exercise so much, you should come upstairs with me and make me a big cup of coffee." She took her half-brother's hand and led him away from the Danger Room, still in her ruby form.

Azari felt a lump forming in his throat. He'd always wanted a sibling but his parents said that it was hard enough raising him.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" he heard Val say behind him.

But when he turned around he realized that she was directing her question to Benji, who was scrolling through his cell phone, distracted by whatever text message he'd gotten.

"Ben?" she asked.

"What?" said Benji distractedly, turning to her and plastering a smile on his face. His white-blonde hair fell in a curly mess around his oval, dimpled face.

"Never mind," said Val, waving her hand as if she was waving away her request.

"See you guys later," said Benji, turning on his heel and walking away.

Val and Azari both stood there, staring as he disappeared in the distance. He didn't want to try to understand the anomaly that was Benji. For now he just wanted to probably go out by the pool and take a nice, long swim.

"Hey," she said, acknowledging his presence. "I could make a pretty decent omelet. My mom taught me in between missions. Wanna come upstairs with me?"

He grinned over at her. How could he resist?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Cassandra Essex was ravenous. She'd been out there for the past week, watching as people ate and drank and generally had a good time. And now she was hungry. She couldn't go on like this anymore. She didn't care if she got caught by anyone. She'd cross that bridge when and if she got there. But, for now, she just needed to find herself something to eat.

_Get out of there now_, instructed her sister Elizabeth. _You're going to get caught_.

_And if you get caught_, added her other sister Victoria, _we all get caught. Because we'd have to come in there guns blazing to save you._

Cassandra wasn't worried so she didn't bother to respond to them. It was the still of night and she'd done a psychic scan. Everyone in the mansion was asleep, or at least very near to it. And, as far as she was concerned, they'd been hiding out way too long. They'd already found the target—they'd spotted her sunbathing the day before—but Elizabeth had insisted that they observe her some more. They didn't know why she was their target or what they were supposed to do with her if they had her in their grips.

There was a bag of Wonderbread that seemed to be waiting for her on the kitchen island as she slipped through the backdoor. She tiptoed over to the island and opened the bag. Then she chomped down on a slice of the bread, savoring the taste.

_Now that you've had your fill_, said Victoria, _get out!_

Cassandra could feel both her sisters' worry wash over her almost as if it were her own so she took three more slices for the road and slipped back out through the backdoor.

_You guys are such worry warts_, she said to them, as she glided across the backyard and into a nearby forest.

_Enjoy that food for the three of us_, said Elizabeth. _Because tomorrow we'll figure out our next move_.

* * *

Ruby Summers wrapped her towel around her slender figure as she stepped out of the shower. She looked at herself through the bathroom mirror: her hair was still wet and clinging to her skin; her dark eyes were shifty; her neck was long and elegant. She thought, subconsciously, that something was going to be different on her seventeenth birthday: like something life changing. But nothing had happened.

She took another towel and dried her hair with it. Then she put her feet into her slippers and opened the bathroom door, steam slowly streaming out. She ran down the corridor to her own bedroom and flung the door open.

Rachel was lying down on her stomach, flipping through the latest issue of Vogue and listening to music through earphones on her bed. She was completely ignoring Ruby as she came into the room. But Ruby was trying her hardest to make as much noise as possible. It was her birthday and her sister hadn't even said 'Happy Birthday' to her. She wouldn't lie and tell anyone that they were close because they weren't. In fact, Ruby often wondered if Rachel hated her.

She sat down on her own bed and casually blowdried her hair, all the while glancing at Rachel, who still hadn't registered her presence.

After she was done with her hair, Ruby changed into a nice pink sleeveless turtleneck that she'd gotten at a boutique in Salem Center and a pair of fitted jeans that she knew made her butt look pretty phenomenal. She slipped on a pair of red booties and pulled her hair into a neat ponytail.

She went over to Rachel's bed and just stood there, looking down at the red-head.

"What?" asked Rachel, pulling one of her earphones out and looking blankly up at Ruby.

"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Ruby. "To that new restaurant in town. Even Nate's coming and you know how busy he is."

Rachel got up and just changed right in front of Ruby: she pulled her blue halter top over her head and her denim miniskirt off and replaced them with a gorgeous green cocktail dress that clung to her size zero figure and threw on a pair of strappy shoes.

"Happy now?" she said ironically, heading towards the door. She used her telekinesis to open it and then walked out of the room.

Ruby followed her, all the while smiling. This would be the first time that she'd ever been able to celebrate her birthday with her entire immediate family. She might have done it with her big brother, her mom and her dad. But it wasn't the same without her sister too. It was kind of special to her. And she'd heard Rachel planning to go to college next year so who knew when they would be able to celebrate a birthday again?

"There you two are," said Emma, as the girls descended the grand staircase. She was looking ravishing in a white—go figure—dress that stopped at her knees and that really accentuated her figure. At forty-seven, Emma was looking just beautiful. Ruby could only wish to look that pretty when she was that age. "The boys are outside waiting in the car."

Mrs. Frost-Summers led them out through the door and Ruby saw her dad in the driver's seat, smiling as she descended the staircase. He was wearing a black and white striped shirt and a green sleeveless V-neck sweater over it. Naturally, he was wearing his ever present ruby quartz glasses. His dark brown hair, which now sported some greys, was parted boyishly at the side.

Ruby's brother Nate was in the backseat wearing a white Ralph Lauren Polo. His burgundy hair—the same burgundy as his little sister Rachel—was also parted at the side. But he was busy going through his BlackBerry.

Ruby and Rachel got in the backseat with their brother while Emma got in the front passenger seat.

"So how have you been enjoying the Institute, Rachel?" asked Scott, as the Mercedes Benz zoomed through the gate. "The estate is particularly beautiful in the summer. I'm glad you were here for it."

There was a long pause where everyone in the vehicle held their breath until Rachel said, "It's okay. I'm adjusting."

Suddenly the car was lifted into the air and thrown somewhere.

"What the hell?" Ruby heard herself saying, as she leaned into her sister.

"Hang tight, everyone," said Rachel. The car stopped moving and lightly fell to the ground. "Okay, guys, I think we're in the clear."

"I don't think so," said Nate. "Who lifted the car up and threw it like that in the first place?"

Ruby opened her side and came out. Nate followed her. Rachel came out on her own side.

"Let's just go back to the mansion," said Scott, coming out of the Mercedes and putting his hands on his hips. Emma came out as well."We aren't that far. Nate, I'm sure you could use your powers and pull the car…" Suddenly he was up in the air, about twenty feet above them. "What's happening?"

Ruby looked across the street and saw three gray-skinned girls standing there and looking up at Scott. They had to be the ones doing that to her dad.

"Who are you?" she yelled to them. "Put my father down!"

"They look like…" Ruby didn't know what her brother was trying to say.

"Give us Rachel and we'll let him go," one of the girls said.

"This isn't a negotiation," said Nate, glaring at the girls. At that moment Ruby knew that he was going to try to attack the girls with some sort of psionic force. But then he pulled back, a perplexed expression on his face. "It's like…they have a shield around them. It's practically impenetrable."

"Let's link our minds together," offered Emma, coming over to their side of the car.

Ruby glanced at Rachel, who was still on the other side, looking up at her father with a dazed expression on her pretty face.

"Rach!" she called.

Snapping out of her reverie, Rachel bounded over to them and focused her gaze on the three girls across the street. Ruby was feeling useless. Unlike her siblings and her pseudo-siblings the Stepford Cuckoos, she hadn't inherited any psionic powers.

But there was one thing she could try doing.

Ruby took a deep breath and then felt the warmth in her eyes and only saw red. Then she released one of her optic blasts directly at the girls. But it bounced off an invisible shield only feet away from their figures and made a beeline for Ruby herself.

She dodged it but it hit the car instead, plunging it into a nearby tree.

"Well that was helpful," said Rachel, rolling her eyes. "This isn't working."

"They're too strong," added Nate.

Rachel suddenly levitated off the floor, using her own telekinesis to lift herself off the ground it seemed.

"Don't you dare try to go up there," said another one of the girls. "It won't work. Just come with us peacefully. We just want to talk."

Rachel suddenly charged towards them and started punching the invisible shield.

"You can't see it," said Emma to her daughter, "but Rachel's using all of her energy to break through that psionic field. Those girls' shield is like a big, black dome surrounding them. And Rachel's energy is a brilliant red, just like her mother's." Emma cleared her throat. "But that doesn't seem to be working."

"Look!" yelped Nate, pointing over at his sister,

Rachel was suddenly in the dome, it seemed, only inches away from the three girls, who were smiling.

Suddenly they all four disappeared.

Scott was now falling out of the sky and Nate used his power to catch him and slowly place him on the ground.

"Those girls looked like Sinister," said Scott immediately.

"But what would they want with Rachel?" asked Ruby. She'd heard about Sinister before. But she'd thought that he'd long been defeated, back when her parents were still field X-Men as opposed to the headmaster and headmistress of the school, anchored to the school.

Them and a lot of the people from their generation had stopped fighting and had allowed a new group of X-Men to take over, led by Scott's son Nate.

"Sinister has always been obsessed with my bloodline," said Scott, glancing at Nate. "And Jean's too."

"So why not kidnap Nate as well?" asked Ruby.

"That's a little complicated, dear," said Emma, holding her daughter's shoulders. "There's more in the mortar than the pestle."

"Emma, we need to find Rachel immediately," said Scott. "You need to be at the mansion right now to track her using Cerebro."

They were all lifted off the ground by Nate, who was apparently using his telekinesis.

"I'll get us there in no time, Dad," he said. "And I'll get the X-Men on it as soon as Emma has a lock on them."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Drawing was one of the few things that Benji Blaire knew that he could do well. And it was one of the few things that he also knew that no one could criticize him for. Art was subjective so what one person liked, another person mightn't. But what was important was whether he, as the artist, had a liking for it.

Because he certainly had a liking for his subject.

He'd been drawing Ruby Summers in his sketch books for as long as he could remember. They'd pretty much grown up together here in the X-Mansion. He'd always had a crush on her. And, last year, he'd confessed his feelings for her. She took it really well but she'd told him that she didn't feel the same way. He didn't mind. As long as she was around and they breathed the same air that would probably be enough for him. And they were really close too. Practically best friends. She was always in his room or they were out by the pool or practicing together in the Danger Room.

Until a girl more fantastic than Ruby Summers came along, he was okay just being her friend.

The door swung open and Ruby was there, tears streaming down her beautiful face. Benji was so surprised that he practically threw his sketch pad across the room so that she wouldn't be completely freaked out by what he'd been doing.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting off his bed.

"Rachel's been kidnapped," she managed to say in between heaves. "Oh Benji." She fell into his arms and he squeezed her tight. "Nate has to go gather the X-Men to try and find her. Mom's in Cerebro, looking everywhere for her."

Benji inhaled the lavender scent of her hair. He really loved this girl. And she was such a sweet person to even care about Rachel. He'd been watching their interactions ever since Rachel moved into the school that summer and he'd gathered that she was more than a little distant and cold. Even to her own big brother. It was apparent that Rachel didn't want to be there and she had absolutely no interest in the X-Campus or its faculty, staff and student body. If it had been him in Ruby's position, he wouldn't have been able to care less.

Like the way he felt about his parents.

"Have you seen my team?" asked Nate, entering the bedroom. "I'm sure they were all down in the sublevels. But it's completely empty now. And when I tried calling any of them, there's no response."

"Well you have to get some people together," said Ruby, turning to her brother. "You have to find Rachel. Those…Sinister Sisters could be doing all kinds of things to her."

"If you don't, I will."

Standing behind Nate was Frankie Richards, his arms folded. The expression on his face brought these words to Benji's mind: if looks could kill. He looked like he was angrier than he'd ever been in his entire life. Like he would destroy the mansion with one thought if he had his way.

Benji hated Frankie from the first day they'd met with his preppy clothes and his do-gooder attitude and his formidable power, as Mrs. Frost-Summers had said. He was destined for greatness, everyone knew, as the eldest son of Reed and Susan Richards. But boy genius over there was the apple of New York's eye. At seventeen he'd already graduated college. His sister, Val, who was leagues more tolerable than her brother, was also a child prodigy: she was already a chess master, a world-class musical composer who was always compared to Mozart, and an artist who most thought in league with Picasso.

Where Frankie acted like he walked on air, Val was just…normal.

"Let's calm down," said Nate, putting one of his big hands on Frankie's shoulder. "Let me just try and gather my team together. Then we could go deal with anything." He ran off, leaving the three of them alone in Benji's room.

"You must be worried sick," said Ruby to Frankie. "But it'll all be okay. Let's go down to the sublevels and see what Mom's come up with." She and Frankie walked out of the room but she looked over her shoulder at Benji. "Are you coming?"

He followed them to the elevator and they silently went down to the sublevels.

Frankie led the way to Cerebro, which opened up when they approached it. Emma was seated on a tall, steel chair with the Cerebro helmet on her head. Her eyes were closed, clearly focusing her telepathic energy to find her stepdaughter.

"Any luck?" asked Benji, trying to participate.

Emma sighed heavily. "Not at all. It's like she's fallen off the map completely. There's no trail of her anywhere."

"Let me try," said Frankie, hovering over the much older woman with a shadow crossing his face. "We have a telepathic bond. I can still feel her but it's very weak. Maybe with Cerebro amplifying my abilities I'll be able to locate her."

Emma looked up at him, her blue eyes expressionless.

"No."

"Excuse me?" he said, scowling at her.

"Cerebro isn't something you just up and decide to use, Franklin. What if you lose control? Nate's seven years older than you are and an extremely talented telepath in his own right and refuses to use Cerebro. Let me keep on trying."

"I may be seventeen, Mrs. Summers, but that doesn't mean that I'm unqualified," started Frankie. "I may not be at my full potential but I can do this. Let me try. And you can oversee me so if I get out of control you can swoop in."

Emma looked up at Frankie's face for a few seconds more and then took of the helmet and passed it to him.

Benji had never respected Frankie more. To actually persuade one of the senior people at the school to do what you wanted was a feet. Aunt Emma was a lot of things and stubborn was definitely one of them. Clearly she had a morsel of faith in Frankie.

Frankie sat down in the chair that Emma vacated and put the helmet on. He closed his eyes, clearly focusing his telepathy, and they were all suddenly surrounded by blips of light, all representing the billions and billions of minds in the world.

"Now you can try to narrow it down to the mutant signatures," instructed Emma. "That would help immensely."

The number of blips cut severely.

"I think…I'm hearing her," said Frankie, flaring his nostrils just a little. About a minute later he said, "I know where she is."

"I'm already downloading the information from your mind and I've already contacted Nate," said Emma, taking the helmet off of Frankie's head. "He can't find his team anywhere. And everyone else who might be able to help is too far away. So I guess that means Scott and I and some of the other staff are going to have to go."

"I'm coming with you," said Ruby and Frankie at the same time.

"And if Ruby's going, I'm going," added Benji, putting an arm around Ruby's shoulders.

Emma shook her head. "Professor Xavier might have been okay endangering the lives of kids. And when I was younger and a little reckless, I wouldn't lie, I did the same. But that time is long, long gone."

She swept out of the room, leaving the three of them standing there.

"If she thinks I'm missing this," said Frankie, looking in the direction Emma had walked in, "she has another thing coming. No one kidnaps my girlfriend and just gets away with it."

* * *

Rachel's mind was slowly clearing but her head was pounding. She tried to open her eyes but a blinding white light stung them, forcing her to keep them closed. She didn't remember anything past disappearing with those three odd girls. She realized that she was lying down on something cold and hard. She needed to get out of there ASAP.

"Wakey wakey," she heard someone say right above her.

She forced her eyes open and looked up into the grinning face of a man who looked almost exactly like the girls who had taken her: same pale skin, red ruby in the middle of his forehead, red eyes. He just looked a little older, like he could be their middle-aged father.

"My, my," he continued. "Aren't you a beauty."

She was trying to hone her telekinesis so she could lunge him across the room—she could now see that she was in the middle of a laboratory—but she couldn't focus. Her head was still too foggy and unfocused to be of any use right now.

"The natural born daughter of Jean Grey and Scott Summers," he continued, sweeping away some of her burgundy hair from her face. She flinched. "I never thought this day would come. But my girls were helpful."

Rachel followed his gaze to the three girls who had kidnapped her, backs against one another and sitting down on a chair.

"I hate getting my hands dirty," he said, by way of explanation. "Well, out of my lab." He smiled. "How does it feel having such power coursing through your veins, darling?" He ran his grey fingers against her porcelain cheek. He made her cringe. "Such untapped potential, this one."

_Frankie_, she tried to call out. _Somebody. I need help_.

But there was no response from anyone.

The man picked up a syringe from on a nearby table. "Let me just get a sample of your blood. Compare it to your brother's just a little."

"Why?" she mustered the energy to ask. "He's my big brother. Our parents are the same."

He chuckled. "Really? That's what you think?" He cleaned the spot he was going to inject with a cotton ball, all the while a wry smile on his face. "They never told you, did they?"

"Told me what?"

"He's not your brother, darling," he said. "Well, at least not completely. He's more like a half brother."

_That's impossible_, she thought. _Both our parents are the same people_.

"Why do you think," started the man, "that your mother would leave her 'son' in Westchester but take you with her? If she hated your father and that little troublemaker Emma so much, why would she leave her first-born son there? Hm?"

_Because he isn't her son_, it dawned on Rachel.

"When you get out of here," he continued, "talk to your doting father about it. Tell him Mr. Sinister sent you."

He stuck the syringe inside of her and drew blood.

Rachel didn't know what was going to happen but she used all of her power to send out a telepathic SOS: _Help me!_

_I'm coming_, she heard a strange voice say.

* * *

"I don't think you should do this," said Ruby, standing in the doorway of Frankie's bedroom with Benji right behind her. "Mom and Dad and Nate will handle it."

But all her talking was in vain. Because Frankie was still changing into his training uniform in spite of the fact that his girlfriend's sister was right there. Ruby felt her cheeks getting warmer at the sight of his toned, sexy body. But she had to control herself; he was totally off limits if there ever was a boy who was off limits.

"I'm going after her," said Frankie. "I know where she is. And I could get there faster than any Blackbird."

"Hey, guys," said Val, materializing behind Benji with Azari in tow. "I heard about Rachel. I'm sure the X-Men will find her. She isn't the first kid to get kidnapped from this school. And she won't be the last."

"By the time I'm done she'll be the last one kidnapped by this Mr. Sinister guy," said Frankie, zipping up the suit all the way to his chin. "I'm flying there now."

Frankie pushed past the entire group of them and they followed him, not saying a word. It was clear that they didn't know what else to say. They could all understand his concern; after all, some strange girls had just kidnapped his girlfriend. And Frankie Richards was no average guy, they all knew. He had hero written all over him. So he wasn't going to take this lying down.

He had a message to send to the world.

The group followed him all the way down the great staircase and out the main door.

"Wait!" yelped Azari. He turned to the rest of them. "Guys, we can't just let Frankie go fight Mr. Sinister on his own. We have to go get this guy."

"Are you crazy?" yelped Benji. "Do you even know who Mr. Sinister is? I read all about him! He's, like, super powerful."

"And what are we?" asked Val, taking her brother's hand. "Chopped liver? We could take them."

Azari floated off the ground. "I say we go for it."

"What do you know? You're just a kid," said Benji, rolling his eyes at Azari. He turned to Ruby. "What do you think?"

"I think…Rachel's my sister," she said in a soft voice. She looked at each of them in turn. "And I also think that a lot of the former frontline X-Men here are out of practice. And we should probably take matters into our own hands."

"Now that our little heart to heart is over," said Frankie, "I think we need to get moving."

Frankie used his powers to lift them all up and they were high in the sky in no time, blasting through the air faster than any jet would have been able to take them. At this rate they were probably going to arrive on the other side of the world in no time.

_Get back here immediately_, they all heard Nate say in their head. _Immediately!_

But they all ignored him.

* * *

_Rachel?_

Rachel closed her eyes, ignoring the pain that she was feeling from the needles injected all over her body, drawing more blood. She needed to focus her energy into responding to whoever this stranger was. It was a strange yet soothingly familiar voice. And she needed to be careful because she could sense that Mr. Sinister was hunched over at a little table, analyzing her blood sample.

_Yes?_ she ventured.

_I'm glad that you're safe_, said the voice, comforting Rachel with its warmth. _Everything is going to be fine now._

_Who are you?_

The person chuckled. _A friend of your mother's. Now let me in. Everything will be fine_.

Rachel certainly wasn't in the habit of allowing people into her. Jean always warned against doing things like that, especially after what had happened with her good friend Ororo and a master telepath known as The Shadow King. He was like a constant menace to her. Rachel wasn't going to risk the same thing happening to her.

_I can't do that_, she said finally. _I won't_.

_If you're Jean's daughter_, the person said, _you're my daughter to. What's hers is mine and what's mine is hers._

Rachel could feel something touching her body, like a warm cashmere sweater or a silk kimono. But those things could at least come off. This felt like it was a part of her mind, body and spirit.

_Who are you?_ asked Rachel again.

_I am the Phoenix_.

Rachel felt her power magnify and her head clearing almost instantaneously. She wasn't foggy anymore. She wasn't worried about anything. She knew that she would be able to get out of this situation because that was what she wanted. It was like her will was the world's command: she had all the power that she could ever need. She had the power of life that wasn't even born yet: that was infinite.

She could even see the room differently: everything in it looked like matter for her to manipulate at her will and transform into whatever she wanted. She was even lying naked on the table and, because she wanted it that way, a head-to-toe red body suit appeared on her slender figure.

"Hey, Mr. Sinister," she taunted. He turned around, a surprised expression on his face. "Wakey, wakey."

Rachel pointed her finger at him and a projectile of pure psionic energy burst from her finger tip, lunging him across the room like she'd wanted to when she'd first gotten up.

"What…" But he couldn't finish his sentence.

Rachel effortlessly hopped off the table but didn't touch the ground, instead using her power to levitate herself. She floated over to Sinister, who was crouched down in the corner, looking up at her. She felt like a total and complete goddess. She felt like she could manipulate his body right then and turn him into anything she wanted. Maybe a dog. No, a cat. She had always wanted a cat but her mom hated them. A little Doll-Face Persian.

Then she could take him back to the mansion.

Rachel stretched her hand out to do what she wanted but felt someone trying to attack her telepathically. It barely tickled her but it was cute that someone was trying.

"What are you doing?" asked one of the Sinister Sisters. She was in the middle, holding the hand of each sister. "Stop that."

Rachel was about to turn the three of them into three miniature poodles when the ceiling collapsed above them. She waved away some of the debris so that it didn't touch her, not even a speck of dust.

"There are the girls," said Ruby, in her ruby form. She landed right in front of the Sinister Sisters, who hadn't responded quickly enough to the falling ceiling and were trapped under it.

"I think you're sister's just fine," said Benji, sitting down on top of the table where Rachel had been only a few minutes ago

"I have a lock on Sinister," said Frankie. "He's on the move."

"I'll come with you," said Rachel. "We'll go get him. Together."

Frankie smiled and took Rachel's hand, the both of them floating above the ground and gazing longingly into each other's eyes and then flying away.

They could see Sinister just a few feet ahead of them but a portal suddenly opened in front of him and he dove in. It closed almost immediately.

"Dammit!" shouted Frankie.

"It's okay," said Rachel, wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him passionately. "It's alright, Frankie. I'm sure there'll be another time."

Mr. Sinister tossed his lab coat on the back of a chair and sat down at a desk, running his fingers through his dark hair. He had left the sample of Rachel's blood behind. And he had barely scratched the surface of her genetic code. He wanted to see what the natural result of Scott Summers' and Jean Grey's would be. The last comingling of those genetic codes had resulted in something spectacular. But it wasn't entire natural.

Knowing the X-Men—were they the X-Men?—they would probably take all his research and destroy that lab in Nebraska. But it was no big deal. He would figure something else out. For now, he was okay allowing them to move on with their lives while he looked from a distance.

And something more intriguing had caught his eye.

From the moment Franklin Richards broke into the lab, he'd felt the connection between him and Rachel. He'd also sensed the raw power in Franklin. Rachel was already one of the most powerful mutants that he'd ever encountered.

But what would be the result of Franklin and Rachel's genetic codes?

Now _that_ was some serious food for thought…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"…and reckless and stupid and irresponsible and immature," scolded Nate Summers' stepmother Emma Frost-Summers. She was mostly directing her little speech to her daughter Ruby, who was busy looking at her red-painted nails and ignoring her mother, while the rest of Ruby's de facto team rolled their eyes and looked out the windows.

Nate had to admit that he liked this side of his little sister. He'd grown accustomed to seeing her as the perfect little princess that his father was always boasting about and her mother was always doting over. The way those two spoke about Ruby was like she could walk on water.

"I mean, could I have told Susan and Reed that _both _their children had died?" continued Emma, her arms flailing. "And on my watch too? And T'Challa and Ororo would have had my head! And Benji! I don't know what I would have done! You're like one of my own kids!"

"Alright, Emma," said Scott, leaving the jet to fly on automatic. He wrapped his arms around his wife's shoulders, trying to calm her down. "The point is that they're all safe, okay? So come in the front with me. We're almost back at the mansion."

Emma kissed her husband on the cheek and joined him in the cockpit.

Nate chuckled, wondering if his dad was ever that loving with his mother. It was sort of a taboo conversation in his family that he was the offspring of a clone of Jean Grey, Madelyne Pryor, who Scott had fallen in love with. He didn't know that Mr. Sinister had orchestrated the whole thing. But Nate had resulted from their relationship.

Technically, Jean was his mother since Madelyne was a dead ringer for her. But technically she wasn't either. She hadn't gotten pregnant by Scott and made Nate. So she sort of always looked at him like a stepson, not that she treated him badly or anything. In fact, after the messy little divorce Jean and Scott went through, Nate had been noticeably wounded by all of it. Jean was, in a lot of ways, a surrogate mother after his own mother's death.

The jet landed at the back of the mansion and Nate ensured that he got out first, sprinting into the house and then finding himself down on the sublevels. He didn't have time before to review the security footage before he went to pick the kids up in Nebraska, but now he needed to deal with this.

Where were the X-Men?

He went into the War Room and pulled up the security footage on the flat screen, trying to figure out what could have happened to the team.

All of them—Domino, Bishop, Colossus, Beast—were in this very same room when Colossus's Aunt Illyana Rasputin aka Magik appeared in the room, passing through one of her stepping disks.

"Hey," said Colossus, getting up and walking over to his aunt. "It's been forever."

"I need your help," she said, taking her nephew by the hand. "You have to come with me to Limbo. Immediately."

Stepping disks teleported each member of his team out of the War Room, leaving it empty.

_They're in Limbo_, he thought, rubbing his chin.

But he couldn't exactly go to that dimension all by himself. He needed at least a team to support him. And he knew exactly who he was going to take.

* * *

The six of them sat down in a circle on the floor of Rachel and Ruby's room, taking the occasional glance at each other but completely speechless. None of them could believe everything that had happened over the past couple of hours—it was the stuff of X-Men legend—but they were all kind of excited. It was fun actually going out on a mission instead of pretending in the Danger Room. And a lot of the new heroes (like the current X-Men roster) were made up of people only a couple of years older than they were and, for the most part, offspring of heroes themselves.

They were all thinking it but they weren't saying it: maybe they could be the second X-Men team.

Much in the way that, back in the days, there was a Blue Team and a Gold Team. There was so much stuff going on in the world, having two teams wasn't such a bad idea.

"Okay," started Benji, "the silence is killing me. Rachel, what happened back in Nebraska?"

"I was kidnapped by Mr. Sinister," she said. She glanced at her sister, unsure as to whether this was the setting to unveil what else she'd learnt. "He wanted to run tests on me. Me and my blood."

"Dad says he's obsessed with our bloodline, Rachel," said Ruby.

"More mine than yours," corrected Rachel, taking Frankie's hand. "What I'm about to tell you guys has to stay among us. Nate—"

"I need your help."

The six of them turned around and saw Nate standing in the doorway.

"I need all of you to suit up," he continued. "You want to play heroes? Prove it."

* * *

Twenty minutes later they were all in their training suits, all except for Rachel, who was very content in her red body suit, waiting in the back of the mansion for Nate. But it was looking a little different this time around: there was a little gold bird at the center of her cleavage that was an exact replica of the one that was on her mother's classic green and gold uniform.

She looked spectacular.

Nate arrived, dressed in his usual gold and blue suit. Essentially it was a navy blue body suit that ended at his neck but it was sleeveless. He wore gold gloves and knee-high gold boots and a gold belt with the signature red X as the buckle. He'd swept back his burgundy hair away from has handsome, chiseled face.

"Come with me," he said, leading the group behind the estate. He glanced at Rachel with an arched eyebrow but didn't say anything. "I know a guy."

"What's our mission?" asked Azari, all excited.

"It's a classic one," said Nate, eyes narrowed ahead of him. "We're going to find the X-Men."

"Where are they?" asked Val.

"In Limbo," responded Nate. "Magik's realm. And I'm worried about them."

Nate led them to a cottage in the far back of the estate that no one ever went to. It looked abandoned. No one could understand why he would be taking them there.

He opened the old, broken down door and led them all inside.

"This place is super creepy," commented Benji, the last one to enter. "It's off the charts."

"Gateway!" called Nate. "Gateway! Are you back yet?"

Suddenly a portal opened in front of them and a little brown man stepped out of it. He glanced at Nate, whose eyes were focused on him. Clearly they were carrying on a serious telepathic conversation. Another portal opened up.

"Get in," instructed Nate, tilting his head in the direction of the portal. He turned to Gateway. "If I'm not back in one hour, Gateway, I'm going to need you tell my dad. He'll know what to do."

Gateway nodded solemnly.

Nate followed the kids into the strange world of Limbo, with its yellow sky and upside down rocks and weird creatures. He'd ventured there only one or two times on missions so he wouldn't say he was an expert. But now that he was in the same realm as his girlfriend Domino, it would have been a little easier to find her.

"Could I just ask a question?" ventured Frankie, looking up at Nate. "If this Gateway guy could teleport us to another dimension, couldn't he have teleported us to where Rachel was being held captive too?"

"He helps when he wants to," said Nate. "Maybe there was a reason why he didn't get involved that time. But I went to the house to ask him for help. He didn't answer when I called out to him."

The group fell silent again until Azari said,

"If we're going to be heroes and stuff, can I be Sky Panther?"

They all burst out laughing, except for Nate.

"I think it's a good idea to pick out codenames," stated Nate. "In uniform you refer to me as X-Man. Outside of that, I'm okay with being Nate."

The group fell silent, each person trying to figure out a name as they roamed through Limbo.

"Let me make this easy for you," said X-Man, after they'd been walking through Limbo for twenty minutes in total silence. "Azari, Sky Panther isn't bad because it honors your heritage. Ruby, what about the Red Princess? Because of your ruby form and your optic blasts? And Emma's the White Queen and all that? Val, I was thinking Miss Fantastic. And Rachel…I think you're Marvel Girl without a doubt. Benji? I think you could be something like…Shatterstar. I remember in your training session how you shattered that rock. And your mom was a star here on earth. She used to sing me songs when I was a kid. Frankie…"

The boy with the mane of sandy-blonde hair arched an eyebrow, waiting to hear what X-Man was going to say.

"I'm still working on it," said X-Man.

A stepping disk opened up a few feet away from them and Magik stepped out, fully garbed in her magical armor with her blonde hair almost teaching the ground beneath her feet.

"Nate?" she said, walking over to him and brushing her hand against his face. She looked at the rest of the team and smirked. "I remember when I was their age. I had my own share of stellar adventures." She looked over her shoulder, alerted by a sound that only she could hear. "This space is too open. You're going to get this children killed, Nate."

A large stepping disk enveloped the whole group and they reemerged in a tastefully decorated oval room at the top of a tower.

"What is this place?" asked Rachel, taking her boyfriend's hand and leading him out onto the balcony. To her left she could so what could only be described as a medieval castle. On the ground people and what could only be demons were bustling about in the market, making their purchases.

"Aunt Illyana," started X-Man, "where's my team?"

"They're safe," she said, waving her hand in the air. "At least for now. Nate, things have just been _awful _for the past few months here in Limbo. There's a little bit of a war here right now. And my opponent? Morgan Gwynn."

"That sounds like…" Nate looked at Illyana, slightly perplexed.

"It's Limbo's version of Pixie," squeaked Illyana, hitting X-Man gently on the chest. "It's ridiculous! And she just appeared out of nowhere, claiming that she had every right to be the Sorcerer Supreme in this realm! And that Limbo isn't even my home!"

"If you're the same Magik I've heard about," said Shatterstar, "isn't she right?"

Illyana glared at him and then turned around, her back facing the entire group. "The rest of your team is downstairs preparing some of my soldiers. You can go find them if you like." She opened the tall, wooden door and disappeared down the corridor.

X-Man followed Limbo's Sorcerer Supreme out of the room, leaving the six of them in the room all by themselves.

"I think we should split up," suggested Sky Panther. "And we need to get something to eat. Because I'm really, really hungry. We should check out the place and try to get information on this war that I guess we're going to be fighting."

Everyone agreed that what Sky Panther said was making sense: they were all hungry and tired and ignorant of what was going on in this weird place. Now would be a good time to figure it out.

* * *

Marvel Girl locked elbows with Frankie as they walked through the market, trying to pick up stray thoughts about this war that was so imminent. She wasn't so sure that she wanted to get involved in this. She knew that the X-Men literally didn't have any boundaries but she was no X-Man. She was just a sixteen-year-old girl who wanted desperately to go home and sleep so that she'd wake up one year closer to adulthood.

Frankie gathered that it seemed to be fifty-fifty when it came to what some of the citizens thought. They all acknowledged that Magik wasn't one of them in the traditional sense because she hadn't been born there. But some argued that she'd been raised there and that she was a powerful sorceress. And, for the most part, she was a just ruler who tried to make life as easy as possible for the citizens of Limbo. Some of the more aggressive citizens seemed to be of the belief that Morgan was a better ruler because she came from the heart of the people. They thought the only thing that would be able to settle everything was if Morgan and Magik went head to head in a magical duel.

And Frankie had to admit that he agreed.

"Rachel? Frankie?"

It was Aliya Bishop, who simply went by Bishop when in uniform. But she wasn't in uniform just then: her long, dark dreadlocks were pulled into a high ponytail and she was wearing full body armor, very similar to Magik's, that shined brightly in the unnatural sun of Limbo.

"When did you get here?" she asked, her hands on her hips. She looked at each of them in turn, panic in her eyes. "You shouldn't be here. You need to get back home. The X-Men will deal with this."

"Nate brought us," said Marvel Girl, looking up into the dark-brown eyes of the older girl. "We're here to fight."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," said Aliyah, turning around. Her hair almost hit Marvel Girl in the face. "Come with me, you two. I'm getting you out of here."

* * *

Red Princess and Shatterstar found themselves in the main hall of the castle, where troops were being mobilized. They were all putting on their suits of magical armor and sharpening their swords in preparation for the battle.

"What are you kids doing here?"

They turned around and saw Colossus hovering over them. Unlike these demons, he didn't need to put on a suit of armor because he could transform into his own form of metal, like his dad could before him. For now he was just Peter Rasputin. His shoulder-length, raven hair was blowing in the wind.

"Did you follow us or something?" he asked, looking down at them. They felt dwarfed in his presence.

"Nate brought us with him," offered Shatterstar. "He needed some people around him who might be able to fight."

Peter shook his head. "He's always been selfish. The X-Men is for people who are over eighteen and are willing to put their lives in danger. Not kids. We need to go find Magik. She needs to teleport you guys home."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sky Panther and Miss Fantastic were roaming the halls, searching for food. She couldn't help from laughing at the way Sky Panther was carrying on about how hungry he was. He tried to explain to her that he was only fourteen so he was still very much in the throes of puberty. So what could she expect?

One of the things she really loved about him was that he could always make her laugh.

They arrived in the large, cobblestoned kitchen, where little demons were busy prancing around making food for the troops to eat before they went out to fight.

"Is that bread?" asked Sky Panther, stretching his hand out to grab a flat piece of flour goodness.

One of the cooks swatted his hand away, like it belonged to a fly.

"That's for the soldiers," said the demon cook.

"We're soldiers!" protested Sky Panther, rubbing the spot that she'd hit.

"Barely. You're children."

Michael McCoy aka Beast was standing by the door, his legs crossed and chewing an apple. His dark hair was curly and unruly but his caramel skin was glowing. He was wearing shimmering armor like most of the other people they had seen while they were roaming the castle.

"Oh," said Miss Fantastic, surprised that Beast had basically appeared out of nowhere.

"Who else came with you?" he asked in general while looking at her.

"Rachel, Ruby, Frankie, Benji and Nate," she told him.

"Nate brought you here?" he asked, before taking another bite of his apple. "Anyway, you need to be back at the mansion. I was your age once. So I won't tell if you won't. I'm sure Aunt Illyana could take you back home."

* * *

"Neena," whispered X-Man, as his girlfriend fell into his arms. She laid her dark head on his chest and he ran his fingers through her short hair. "I was worried sick about you. About all of you. I know this place can be really dangerous."

Domino looked up at him, her dark eyes glimmering. He couldn't help from thinking about how much he loved her. He knew that he was really young. But, with the life they led, who knew what could happen? By the time his dad was his age he'd been married twice and had a baby. So what was stopping him from getting married to Neena now?

She was his best friend and closest confidant: she knew him better than he knew himself.

"I'm fine," she said, cupping his face in her cold hands. They were cold from the armor she was wearing. "We're all fine."

There was a knock on her door and she ran over to get it.

"The Sorcerer Supreme told me to alert," said a demon. "She said that Morgan has advanced. And that the time is now."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Miss Fantastic didn't know what the big deal was. Why she and the rest of her friends were being bundled into a little room under Magik's castle. She felt like they didn't respect them. They weren't kids. Not even Sky Panther. With parents who were heroes, those kids had to grow up really quickly. So they weren't children. If they were told to stay in this room for their safety, that was what they would do. They didn't need the X-Men to escort them there.

She folded her arms, sitting down on a stone bench on the far side of the square, drafty room. She couldn't help from smiling as the rest of her 'team' scowled at the X-Men.

"Magik's already out there," said Bishop. "So she can't take you back."

"But you should stay here anyway," instructed Colossus, looking at each of the kids in turn.

"Don't come out unless you have to," added Beast.

"'Have to' meaning if you're attacked or something," said Domino, her fingers intertwined with X-Man's. "It's for your own protection."

"And I'll be keeping an eye on you," finished X-Man. "You know I could watch even in a battle." Miss Fantastic could see him squeezing Domino's fingers even harder, as if he wanted to make sure that she was still there. She had always thought that their love was strong.

The X-Men were summoned by one of Magik's pages and they closed (and locked, as if that could stop the kids) the tall, wooden door behind them.

Sky Panther put his head on Miss Fantastic's shoulder and she ran her hand against his soft, white hair.

Marvel Girl was pacing up and down the little room, looking as beautiful as ever in her red bodysuit. Miss Fantastic cracked another smile. She and Marvel Girl had pretty much grown up together, even though the X-Men were more of a secret group. Their identities were far from public—in fact, most people didn't even know that the X-Men existed—but when Jean Grey-Summers had moved to New York after her divorce with her baby, she immediately clicked with Sue Richards, who she'd had a couple of missions with. Marvel Girl and Miss Fantastic's older brother Frankie were the same age.

And everyone knew that those two were meant to be.

Frankie was leaning against a wall, his sky-blue eyes following his girlfriend. "What's on your mind, Ray?"

"I want to fight," hissed Marvel Girl. Miss Fantastic pulled back. Had she just seen…an electric blue Phoenix emblem appear over Marvel Girl's left eye? It was just for a split second but she was sure that she'd seen it. "I can feel everything going on out there. It's epic."

"Are you okay?" asked Miss Fantastic, walking over to Marvel Girl and putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I'm fine," said Marvel Girl, sounding more like herself. She smiled at Miss Fantastic. "Just fine."

"I'm with Rach," said Shatterstar, who was seated next to the Red Princess on the floor in a corner. "We should get out there."

"But they told us to stay here," said Sky Panther. "We should listen, guys. What if we get hurt? The X-Man would get in a lot of trouble."

"Who cares about that?" said the Red Princess, surprising them all. "We're already here and they're going to get into a lot of trouble anyway. I say we go out there."

Miss Fantastic was seriously surprised. She hadn't expected strait-laced Ruby Summers to agree with that.

"Val?" said Sky Panther. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "I think there's safety in numbers. And whether you and I go or not, the rest of them are. So we should go out there and fight together."

Frankie pulled open the door and stepped aside. "Let's go."

They crept up to the higher levels of the castle—which was now completely abandoned—and then found themselves tip-toeing out of a side exit that led into the market, which was also empty. In the distance, though, Miss Fantastic could see that there was serious fighting going on in the distance. It looked unreal. Some demons were fighting in the air while others were fighting on the ground with the X-Men and some of the other human citizens of Limbo.

Marvel Girl was already levitating off of the ground, giddy with excitement.

The group was near the open steel gates.

"This is it," said Frankie, who had left the room last but had ended up at the front of the group with Marvel Girl. "We need to stick together. Val—I mean—Miss Fantastic, would you be so kind as to make an invisible force field around our group?"

Miss Fantastic listened to her brother and formed a little bubble around their group.

Marvel Girl stopped in her tracks and then, suddenly, Miss Fantastic felt the bubble collapse.

"You guys can stay in that," she said, levitating off the ground, a big grin on her face. The Phoenix emblem was more prominent around her eye as she flew high above them. "I really want a piece of the action."

The bubble reappeared around the remainder of the group.

Marvel Girl flew right into the middle of the battle, flinging demons all over the place and laughing hysterically as she did. At one point she even projected red energy from her fingertips, stunning some of her opponents.

Miss Fantastic was questioning if Marvel Girl even knew who she was attacking: was she attacking Magik's troops or Megan's?

Some demons appeared around them, chanting spells that made them all feel woozy.

"This shield thing isn't working," commented Shatterstar. He glanced at Rachel, who was pretty far away and reveling in throwing her opponents far, far away with her telekinesis. "Take it down! Let's fight."

The rest of her team turned to her, clearly agreeing with Shatterstar.

So she listened.

Sky Panther immediately started glowing blue and then, out of nowhere, released bolts of electricity from his fingers, shocking the demons and making them pass out. Franklin was using his telekinesis to throw demons all over the place. The Red Princess was punching any demons who weren't in the shimmering armor of Magik's defenders. Shatterstar was blinding demons and shocking them.

Miss Fantastic managed to make a shield around her body that she was able to use as her own form of invisible armor to punch some of the opposing demons to oblivion.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion overhead, forcing her to look up into the sky at Marvel Girl, who was high above the battle with her arms spread wide and—the most shocking thing to Miss Fantastic—the red fire surrounding her. At moments the energy halo surrounding her friend took the shape of the Phoenix but at others it seemed like a regular cosmic flame.

_This battle bores me!_ Miss Fantastic heard in her head. The voice sounded like it belonged to her friend but then it didn't, all at the same time. _I shall end it!_

Over the left eye of a demon Miss Fantastic was holding in her armored hand appeared the electric blue Phoenix emblem like the one that had been over Marvel Girl's.

The demon stopped moving, as if it were dead. Miss Fantastic rattled the demon but it didn't move. It really was dead.

"Whoa," said the Red Princess, slowly walking over to Miss Fantastic's side. "Did…Rachel just do that? Like, by herself?"

"I guess Magik's the undisputed ruler of Limbo," said Sky Panther, landing next to them. "Is anybody else a little freaked out?"

Marvel Girl was still circling the battle in the air, a visible grin on her face and her orange/red energy halo burning brilliantly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It had been two weeks since Rachel had come back from Limbo. Two weeks since 'the incident', as the adults in her life had been calling it. She felt like she was always under surveillance since she'd gotten back, which was completely unnecessary. She could feel whenever Emma psychically checked up on her and now she had to go to therapy sessions, which had been insisted upon by her dad. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Emma on a day to day basis around campus but now she had to meet with Emma every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after she was done with her classes for the day.

At this point she was really missing her mom. Jean probably wouldn't have made a big deal about it. That was why she should have been headmistress of the school and not Emma. But that was a whole other conversation.

Maybe she'd bring it up in their first therapy session now.

"Hi, Rachel," said Emma, as the red-head opened up the solid oak-wood door of Emma's office. She was seated behind her big, steel desk, rifling through documents. "I'm glad you're here. Have a seat."

Rachel rolled her eyes and sat down on the white sofa on the other side of the room. She crossed her legs daintily and plastered a smile on her face.

"New look for you," commented Emma, looking at Rachel with an arched eyebrow. "I never thought of you as a…leather pants and bustier top kind of girl. You've always been so…"

"Uptight?" said Rachel, tucking some of her wine-colored hair behind her ear as she finished her stepmother's sentence. Rachel had swapped her silk blouses and hound's-tooth skirts for sexier, flirtier things. That morning she'd decided to put on a red bustier that only made her chest look voluptuous and some leather pants that fit her figure like a glove. Even though she was pretty tall at five-seven, she looked seven feet tall in her sky-high Louboutin stilettos. She'd gotten everything at a store in Salem Center. Those and a whole bunch of less-uptight outfits. She'd probably have to throw away her old clothes soon.

"Not the exact word I would have used," said Emma, her blue eyes dancing in the natural light streaming through her French doors. "I always thought 'preppy' was a description of your style. Your father's preppy as well. I think he learnt it from Charles. And so is Nate and Ruby."

"And you?" asked Rachel, cracking a smile at Emma. "What's your style?"

Emma tilted her head to the side, allowing her golden hair to fall down over one shoulder. "I'm sure you have your own answer to that."

"I sure do."

"But this session isn't about me, is it? It's about you, Rachel. And about what happened in Limbo. Everyone is concerned about you." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to ask you a direct question, Rachel."

Rachel rolled her eyes, thinking that Emma certainly had a flare for the dramatic. Maybe she should switch gears from ruining perfectly normal families and get into acting. Nobody knew she was a supervillain-turned-superhero. She was just Emma Frost: CEO of Frost Industries and co-headmistress of a school for 'gifted youngsters' that most people assumed was a school for the wildly intelligent.

"Are you the new host of the Phoenix Force?" asked Emma. "Because that would be okay but you'd probably need some help."

Rachel chuckled. "My mom is the avatar of the Phoenix Force, Emma. Not me."

"From what I heard," continued Emma, undeterred, "you displayed the Phoenix Raptor in Limbo. Is that true?"

Rachel shrugged. How was she to know if she'd displayed the Phoenix Raptor or not? She was busy winning the war for Illyana. The only thing that she regretted about that battle in Limbo was the fact that Illyana's opponent had managed to escape.

"Well everyone is concerned," said Emma. "Especially your father. And I'm concerned too."

"I'm fine, okay?" said Rachel. "There's nothing to worry about."

"There's always something to worry about when the Phoenix is involved, Rachel," said Emma, shaking her head. "I've dealt with it more than once. And I've been controlled by it too. I know how alluring it is. But it can also be overwhelming."

Rachel raised a hand to silence her stepmom. "Listen, Emma: if I have access to the Phoenix Force, it's only, like, an echo or something. It's nothing to worry about."

The door flung open and Ruby ran in, not even glancing at Rachel's side of the room. She sat down on Emma's desk and crossed her legs.

"You could have given me a heads up, Mom," said Ruby. "What's the point if my parents are the headmasters of this place and I don't know stuff before it happens? It kind of sucked finding out with everyone else."

"Finding out what?" asked Rachel, getting up and walking over to her sister.

"Oh," said Ruby, in a small voice. "I didn't see you there."

"And what are you talking about, Ruby?" asked Emma, sweeping away some of Ruby's light-brown hair from her face.

"You don't know either?" asked Ruby of her mom. "Nate and Dad just pulled a bunch of us into a meeting. He said that we're going to be, like, a new bunch of heroes or something."

"Excuse me?" said Emma, pulling back. "Heroes?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. They said we're going to be the new face of the mutant race or something like that. Nate said that there's growing hysteria in the world about mutants and that we need to put our best foot forward. He said that the X-Men have been in the shadows saving the world long enough and that it's time that we get the mutant cause out there. He said that people were willing to accept The Avengers and the Fantastic Four. So it's our turn."

"Rachel, we'll have to continue our session later," said Emma, looking over her daughter's shoulder. "I need to find your dad and your brother."

"Do what you gotta do, lady," said Rachel nonchalantly.

Emma strutted out of the room.

"Rachel," said Benji, walking into Emma's office and looking Rachel up and down. "This is a seriously different side to you. I wanted to tell you in English class this morning but I didn't get the chance."

Rachel blushed. "Thank you."

Ruby grabbed Benji by the collar and they left the room.

Deciding that she couldn't take staying in that office one minute longer, Rachel picked up her books and left. She did a quick scan of the school and learnt that Frankie was in his bedroom upstairs reading the latest issue of The New Yorker. She envied him. Unlike the rest of them, Frankie didn't have to go to any of the classes and, instead, spent most of his time practicing his powers in the Danger Room or swimming in the pool or relaxing. Rachel always told him that he should probably be busy trying to come up with a cure for cancer or HIV but he insisted that, in spite of his huge brain, he was still only seventeen.

As she was approaching her room she heard the Phoenix in her head again: _I like him_.

_Not too much, I hope_, she countered. _He's my boyfriend_.

_He's a good match for you_, said the Phoenix. _Very powerful. I can feel it_.

_I know, right? But he has these psychic barriers in his head. He's taking his time to break them down. He says that his power can be overwhelming. But that was when he was a child._

_He's a man now. He should live a little._

"Hi, Ray," said Frankie, pulling himself away from his magazine as Rachel burst through the door. He was sprawled out on his bed in a tight, white T-shirt and some faded denim jeans. "Come here. Lie down with me."

Rachel got into bed with him and pulled his arms around her body.

"You look really sexy," he whispered into her ear. She could feel him nibbling her ear, making her giggle.

But she was busy going into his head, silently demolishing those psychic barriers he'd installed. It was surprisingly easy, she noted. Especially with the Phoenix supporting her.

He hadn't even noticed.

"…so I told them that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to join their team," he was saying. "But, I mean, I understand the purpose of it. But I can't be part of a team that you're not a part of."

"What?" said Rachel. She was almost at the last barrier but he'd distracted her.

"You're dad said that you weren't going to be on the team," Frankie continued. "He said that, right now, you weren't stable enough. Which I guess makes sense."

Rachel pulled his arms off of her. "How does that make sense?"

"With the Phoenix thing," he said. "You know, it's kind of scary."

Rachel pulled herself up and fled the room. She was going to find her dad. Who was he to say that she wasn't in control of what was going on with 'the Phoenix thing'?

She burst into his office but she didn't find him alone: he was there with Emma and Nate. They were all standing around his table.

"I heard that I'm not included in the little team that you're assembling," she spat at her father and her brother. "Why is that?"

"Because you're not ready yet," said Scott, putting his hands in the pockets of his corduroys. "Emma was just informing us of this…Phoenix Echo of yours. The Phoenix will amplify your power ten-fold, Rachel."

"And the kinds of missions we'll be sending the team on aren't the kinds you'll need that kind of fire power for," added Nate. "Regular stuff like thefts and fires and getting cats out of trees."

"I can do that," protested Rachel, taking a step forward. But she saw the three of them flinch. "What's wrong?"

"You're doing it," said Emma. "The blue Phoenix emblem. Above your eye."

Rachel bit her bottom lip and ran away. Was she running? No, she was flying through the mansion so she could get back up to Frankie's room. He'd understand her. He always understood her. That was why she loved him so much.

Frankie was holding his temples with his legs folded under him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, running her fingers through his hair.

"No," he said. "I feel…"

"I took down the barriers in your head," she confessed.

"Why would you do that, Ray?" he asked, pushing her hand away.

"Because I need you to come with me," she told him. "I…I can't stay here. Everyone's acting like I'm some kind of freak. And we're all freaks in this place so you'd think we were above that."

The last barrier was broken down.

Frankie looked up at her, his eyes clearer than they'd ever been. It was like a light had switched on in his head. Sunlight practically shined from behind his eyes.

"We have to leave," she said, cupping his face with her hands. "Let's leave."

"Where?"

"Anywhere. Everywhere. We could see the universe. We have the power."

Frankie got up and took her hand. "Don't tell anyone, but I've always wanted to go see the universe."

"Rachel!"

Rachel and Frankie turned around. Emma, Nate and Scott were standing in the doorway, concerned expressions on their faces. She didn't know what they were so worried about. If she was such a freak, wouldn't it make their lives easier if she just left? And that didn't mean that she wouldn't come back. But, for now, she probably needed to take a little break from them with her boyfriend at her side and then she could come back full circle.

"Where are you two going?" asked Nate, stepping into the room.

"Out," said Frankie.

Suddenly he and Rachel flew out through the French doors and up into the sky, space bound.

Scott, Emma and Nate were just standing there with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

"They're going to space," said Emma. "Deep space."

"We're going to have to go get them," said Nate. "I'll get my team."

Scott shook his head, his fingers rubbing his chin. "No you don't. I'm calling Jean."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Ruby walked into the lobby of The Hellfire Club of New York City on Vanderbilt Avenue in Midtown Manhattan with Benji in tow. She hadn't asked him to come but when she'd read the email from her cousin inviting her to have Sunday brunch with her, he was in her room and he'd insisted on coming. He said that he'd never been in the walls of the infamous club that Emma had been a part of. She'd been trying to convince him that the Hellfire Club no longer had any Inner Circle but was now, simply, a regular social club. But he was insistent so he still wanted to come.

She anxiously switched the strap of her favorite Chanel bag from one shoulder to the other as she approached the host standing at the entrance to the restaurant. He was busy going through a computer system as she and Benji approached.

Ruby nervously flattened the front of her baby blue knee-length dress and self-consciously swept away some of her light-brown hair from her face.

"Hello," she said, smiling at the man. He looked up and gave her the once over, waiting for her to introduce herself. "Ruby Summers. And this is my friend Benjamin Blaire. We're supposed to be meeting my cousin Kendall Tremblay for lunch."

"Miss Summers!" the host exclaimed. "Of course. How's your mother doing? She never comes to anything the Club hosts anymore. She simply…sends a check."

"Mom's great," said Ruby, allowing the host to lead her further into the restaurant. "Just really busy, I suppose."

"Of course," he said over his shoulder.

"God, this place is huge," said Benji, who was walking next to her and fidgeting with his brown sport coat. Ruby could tell that he just hated wearing the coat, the lime green shirt, the khakis and the loafers but she'd told him that The Hellfire Club probably wouldn't have admitted him entrance if he'd come in a Led Zeppelin T-shirt, jeans and some Converse All-Stars. "How many stories is this building? Like, eleven or something?"

Ruby shrugged. She loved the building. It was ancient and archaic in one sense with its stained glass windows and tall ceiling. But that was the appeal of a club this old, she supposed. And she couldn't wait to turn eighteen, when she'd get her own invitation to join the club. It was tradition that the children of club members automatically became members themselves when they were eighteen. She couldn't wait to leave Xavier's and move to New York, where she'd always planned to attend Empire State University, like her mom had before her, so she'd get her degree in Architecture.

"Kendall!" she called, seeing her cousin sitting cross-legged at a table.

Kendall Tremblay turned to her and smiled dazzlingly. She had dark hair that was in wild curls and big, blue eyes that were glittering as they settled on Ruby. She was wearing a mini-dress that propped up her rather voluptuous chest—Ruby wasn't so sure that Kendall's endowment was so huge the last time they'd seen each other—and she was looking particularly stunning.

Sitting next to Kendall was another guy who Ruby couldn't place. He had ash-blonde hair and golden eyes and he was very handsome, like he could be an Abercrombie & Fitch model. He was wearing a green V-neck sweater and some short cargo pants along with some loafers. He looked like he should have been building a boat at his country house at the Cape instead of sitting at a table in a restaurant sipping on coffee.

"Rubes, it's been too long," said Kendall, getting up and kissing her cousin on both cheeks. "And I come with glad tidings"

"This is my best friend Benji," introduced Ruby, as the three of them sat down. "He goes to Xavier's with me."

"Oh," said Kendall, her eyebrows arched as she looked at Benji. It was like she was only just seeing him even though she'd acknowledged his presence just a couple of seconds ago. "Anyway, Rubes, this is our other cousin Devlin."

Ruby's jaw dropped. She hadn't seen Devlin in forever, not since she was a little kid and she'd gone to visit Devlin and his parents in San Francisco. Devlin's dad and Ruby's mom were siblings. They were really close growing up but had gone their separate ways when they'd grown to adulthood, only to reconnect after they'd both had children. Ruby had met Devlin when she was eight and he was ten. His parents were gay men but he was, biologically, Ruby and Kendall's cousin via surrogate.

She'd liked talking with him but it was really difficult maintaining a friendship when the parties lived on completely different coasts.

Kendall's mom Cordelia tended to keep to herself, even though she also lived in California, according to Emma. In fact, it had been Kendall who had reached out to Ruby when Ruby was thirteen and that was how she'd learnt that she even had yet another cousin on her mom's side. Clearly Kendall had also reached out to Devlin too.

"How've you been?" asked Ruby, smiling over at Devlin. "You look great. Really tan."

"You look great too," he said. "I'm okay."

"He's wonderful," said Kendall. "Did you know that he was going to UCLA all along?"

The waiter came over and took their orders before scampering off again.

"Have you thought about colleges?" asked Devlin.

"Ruby wants to go to ESU," said Benji, who had been sitting there quietly. Ruby supposed that now he was feeling like the ultimate outsider since it was now a huge family reunion kind of thing.

"How ironic," said Devlin. "Don't you have any other choices?"

Ruby shook her head. "It's ESU or nothing I'm afraid. Well, I'm applying to Yale and Brown and a couple other safeties but…ESU is in my blood, you know? So what are you two doing on the East Coast anyway?"

Devlin and Kendall looked at each other and then back at their cousin. "For you," they said in unison.

"Me?" asked Ruby, surprised. "You guys came all this way for me? I'm sort of flattered."

"Don't be," said Kendall, tucking some of her dark hair behind one of her ears. "We're just…too far away from each other."

"And since you're on one coast," said Devlin, "and we're on the other, we decided to close the gap."

"We both transferred to ESU, Rubes," said Kendall, a huge smile on her pretty face. "And you're up at Xavier's so you could always come here and see us."

"We've basically taken possession of some of the rooms here," said Devlin.

"You're staying at the Hellfire Club?" interjected Benji.

"Well, I'm a member at the Los Angeles chapter," said Kendall, smiling over at Benji in a way that made Ruby feel immediately defensive of him, even though she didn't know why.

"And I'm a member of the San Francisco chapter," added Devlin, running his fingers through his wavy blonde hair. "So it's not a big deal."

"But," started Ruby, "I just don't understand why you'd want to move all the way out here."

"Cordelia's a jerk," said Kendall, rolling her eyes. "I mean, she made me and Karina think we had no family on her side. Like her parents were did when they're just really old and still living in Massachusetts. She made us think that Aunt Emma was some kind of monster but when I met her, she couldn't be nicer. And she made Uncle Christian out to be some kind of crazy person when he's, like, a really put together, nice man. She was wrong."

"And you only have one family, Rubes," said Devlin, putting his hand on hers. "And from what I heard from Kendall, your own siblings don't care as much as we can."

For sure Ruby knew that Rachel didn't care about her all that much. It always felt like she had to be the one forcing Rachel to talk to her or to share anything with her. She hated that. They were practically twins and she always wanted them to be close. It sucked that Jean felt like she couldn't stay at the Institute with Emma and Scott because it just meant that she and Rachel didn't get the opportunity to grow up together.

Nate was a good big brother when he had to time. But he'd decided not to go to college so he could join the X-Men and ease the burden that their dad had been carrying since he was a teenager. Ruby loved Nate but since then, he'd changed in a lot of ways. He couldn't just relax because he was too busy defending the world against rogue elements that threatened it.

"I think I'd like that," she said, looking at each of her cousins. "I'd like that a lot."

"I think there's more to their coming to New York than they're letting on," said Benji, as he and Ruby were walking out the front doors of The Hellfire Club.

But she didn't really care all that much for what he had to say. She was still on a serious high after having lunch with her cousins. She liked them so much. And they had so much in common like their taste in music and the TV shows they liked to watch. She and Kendall had even made a date to go shopping on Fifth Avenue next weekend.

"They just want a big happy family?" continued Benji, standing on the curb and trying to hail them a cab. "I doubt it. I bet that hottie Kendall has more tricks up her sleeve than she's telling you, Ruby."

"Tricks? I've never been told that before."

Ruby and Benji turned around and there was Kendall, holding up Benji's sunglasses. She handed them to him and walked away.

Benji ran after her and touched her elbow. She stopped and turned around, looking up into his face.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just…I'm not good with the family thing, I guess."

"Well maybe you should make it up to me by taking me for lunch tomorrow," she said, a smirk on her face.

"Benji's a student," interjected Ruby, getting in the middle of them. "A high school student. So he isn't going to be free until next weekend anyway."

"Friday night?" said Kendall, her hands on her hips.

Benji was blushing like an idiot. Ruby just wanted to punch him across the face. He was acting like a girl had never come on to him before. Well, a girl had never really come on to him. At least not while he was around Ruby, which was most of the time. Maybe she was blocking him from meeting other girls. But, then again, she never stopped him from talking to any girls at Xavier's so she'd simply assumed that he wasn't interested in any of them.

"Well—"

Benji never got to finish the statement.

Suddenly a wormhole opened up in the sky above Manhattan, causing everyone to look up and point at the phenomenon.

Ruby could see two figures fly out of the wormhole and then, to her shock, the Phoenix Raptor in all its glory followed them.

"Is that…" Ruby didn't know what to think. But she got an idea immediately of who the two early figures had to be: Rachel and Franklin. And that meant that Jean was in hot pursuit of the two of them. "Kendall, um, we have to go." She grabbed Benji by the hand and ran down the street with him.

They followed the Phoenix Raptor to the Upper East Side and…Ruby wasn't sure but, if she wasn't mistaken, they were really near to Rachel's old apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Ruby remembered coming there with her dad a couple of times when he had to drop Rachel back to Manhattan after she'd come up to Westchester to visit when she and Rachel were younger. The Raptor was looming over the building, which could only mean that Rachel and Franklin were probably up there now.

"God, I wish I could fly," said Benji, pushing past the doorman with Ruby right behind him.

They went up the elevator to the penthouse, which was split into two separate apartments. Benji tried to ram one of the doors open but he couldn't, causing Ruby to morph into her ruby form and tackle it with her immense strength. It fell down instantaneously. There were some people huddled in a corner, obviously terrified by what was going on outside and now by a ruby girl bursting through their front door.

"Everything is going to be okay," comforted Ruby.

Ruby and Benji ran up the staircase until they came out on the rooftop of the building.

Rachel was levitating off the rooftop with her hands on her hips. She was wearing a red bustier top that exposed her flat stomach with the Phoenix emblem at the center of her cleavage and a pair of red tights. She didn't seem to have hair but rather flames emanating from her head. The electric blue Phoenix emblem was glowing over her left eye.

Frankie was next to her in an all-black bodysuit that highlighted all of the muscles on his perfect, slender figure. Even though they'd only been gone for a couple of days, his hair had already grown to his shoulders.

The Phoenix aka Jean Grey-Summers was looming high above them in her classic green Phoenix suit. Her legs were together and her arms were wide apart and the Phoenix energy signature was going wild about her body. Ruby couldn't help from marveling at the shear awesomeness that was the Phoenix. Jean, who had been possessed by the Phoenix when she was young, was now one and the same with this mighty, omnipotent force. Ruby didn't know if she would ever be able to handle something so all-powerful.

"Leave us alone!" yelled Rachel. She enveloped herself and Frankie in her own Phoenix energy signature but it was dwarfed in comparison to Jean's. "We were fine on our own!"

"Rach!" called Ruby. The three of them turned to her and Benji. "What are you doing?"

"You shouldn't be here," said Jean. "It's dangerous."

"Why do you even care about her?" asked Rachel over her mother, curling her lip. "She's not your daughter!"

"But you are," said Jean. "And it's about time you learn that lesson!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_**X**__-There's a treat for all Wolverine Fans…_

* * *

Two Days Earlier: The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London

"Jean, my darling. Wake up."

Jean Grey-Summers blinked her green eyes open and yawned. She could feel his fingers as they rubbed against her thigh, which was covered by her silk pajama bottoms, tickling her and making her smile. The sun was streaming into the bedroom. He'd clearly been up before her. He'd opened up the curtains. She was surprised that the sunlight hadn't waked her up before. But, then again, she was extremely tired from all the work she'd been doing running the magazine. People underestimated how much work it took to put together a fashion magazine the way she had been doing over the past couple of months, especially one of the stature of British Vogue.

She sighed heavily and sat up, stretching her arms high into the air. Jean couldn't help from wondering if her breath was kicking because she was expecting him to lean over and kiss her any time now. They'd been seeing each other for a while now but that didn't mean that she was ready for him to see her at her very worst.

At least not yet…

"You look beautiful, darling," he said next to her, as if he'd read her mind. Sometimes she wondered who the real telepath between them was. She felt him plant the sweetest, most romantic kiss on her cheek, which made her blush uncontrollably. "Are you skipping breakfast this morning? Marjorie's gone to fantastic lengths to make you scrambled eggs and bacon and toast and even some freshly squeezed orange juice that you Americans just love. Take it from me, Jean: Marjorie's been my housekeeper and cook ever since I could remember and she never likes any of the women I'm with. You should be flattered."

"Of course I'm flattered, William," said Jean, turning to him. He immediately started running his fingers through her thick mane of wine-colored hair. "But I'm not really hungry."

"You've been living with me for almost four months now, Jean, and you never eat breakfast," said William, in his adorably British accent.

His light-brown hair was curly and messy but even so he was looking remarkably handsome. He had a long, straight patrician nose and a small, sexy mouth that she always had to help herself from kissing. Even in the harsh light of day he looked positively gorgeous in his pajama bottoms alone; she could do without the curls of light-brown hair on his muscled chest but she'd learnt to live with them. She still couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, he was so darn perfect inside and out.

"It's the most important meal of the day," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and squeezing her tight. She couldn't help from smiling. He was obviously a little frisky.

"I have to get ready to head to the office," she told him, forcing herself out of his grip and standing up. She immediately felt self-conscious in the skimpy tank top she was wearing with no bra underneath. She was a mother, not a twenty-something year-old. "I'm going into the shower."

She went into the adjoining bathroom and took a soothing shower. She stepped out and dried her skin but, when she went back into her bedroom to change, she was more surprised than she could ever be.

William was just outside the door, dressed in the same way that she'd left him, down on one knee and holding up a ring box with a diamond ring Jean couldn't even fathom. It had to be the most beautiful diamond ring she'd ever seen, and she'd seen a lot because she had a thing for going into Tiffany's and window shopping when she used to live in New York City. She knew what kind of ring she wanted but she just didn't have the right guy to give it to her.

Now she had them both.

"Jean Grey-Summers," he said, "will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"Of course!" she yelled instantly. He stood up and she ran into his arms. After squeezing him tight for a couple of minutes, she allowed him to place the stunner on her ring finger.

"I love you so much, Jean," he whispered.

"I love you so much too," she whispered back. Then she kissed him, forgetting all about how late she was going to be for work. But she was the boss. She really couldn't be late…

* * *

Jean took her time walking down the staircase of William's stately townhouse an hour later to get into the silver Mercedes waiting for her, thinking about all that was happening. Obviously, she would have to call Ororo and some of her other friends and tell them about the wedding. Rachel would have to be her maiden of honor and Ororo and some of the other X-Girls would probably make up the rest of her bridal party.

She'd made a couple of friends since moving to London, a few of them being influential fashion designers. She would definitely get some one of them—or all of them—to design a dress for her. And she'd most definitely have the entire wedding photographed and inserted into that month's issue of Vogue. She'd have to get a wedding planner soon too. It was already fall so she didn't know when would be a good time to have the wedding. Should she wait till next summer?

"He isn't for you, Red."

Jean turned around and almost rammed right into none other than Logan. He was looking the same as he'd always been looking as far as she was concerned. But she knew that she wasn't. She was getting older. She was going to be turning fifty in a couple of years. But Logan just seemed to be in his mid-thirties.

"I think this is called stalking, Logan," she told him, folding her arms across her chest.

Logan shrugged. He was wearing a brown leather jacket over his black wifebeater and a pair of faded blue jeans and some boots. He stood out in London, especially there, where the fabulously wealthy lived.

But Jean would be lying if she said that her heart didn't skip a beat whenever she laid eyes on him. He'd always intrigued her.

"You call it stalking," he said, "I call it catching up with an old friend."

She chuckled and shook her head. "Logan, I need to get to work."

"Or you can come get coffee with me in the shop around the corner."

Every fiber of her being was telling her to just get into the car and allow her driver to take her straight to her office. But another more primal urge took over so she told the driver, "I'm just going to the coffee shop for a couple of minutes." He nodded and drove off.

Jean allowed Logan to lead her to the coffee shop. They sat down at one of the tables outside. She had to bundle herself up in her gray faux-fur Stella McCartney gilet because it was starting to get more than a little chilly. But she knew that this meeting wouldn't take long. It never took long.

"So where have you been?" she asked him, crossing her legs and staring blankly over at him.

"Japan," he grunted. "You know that's my safety zone."

She nodded. She'd asked a stupid question and she'd gotten the answer that she always got from him. But she was only making small talk.

"What have you been up to?" she asked.

"Thinking about you," he said. "A lot."

"I wish you wouldn't," she said. A waitress appeared and Logan ordered two cappuccinos before she left again. "I'm sure there's someone out there for you."

"Jean, I've wanted to be with you ever since we met all those years ago," he said, stretching his hand across the table and placing it on hers. "But I respected your marriage. And it ended all those years ago and I was waiting with open arms."

"And nobody was there for me as much as you were," she said, squeezing his hand. "Especially with Rachel. I moved to New York and you pretty much came with me and helped me to take care of her for that first year and I'll never be able to repay you for that."

"I did it because I love you."

She smiled. "I know you do, Logan. And I love you too. But like a dear, dear friend."

He pulled away and leant back in his chair, clearly agitated. He was huffing and puffing; his chest was heaving; he looked like he was dying for a cigar to puff on. He was the same old Logan. And she loved him. But not in the way that he wanted. He just didn't seem to understand why she couldn't be with him in the way he wanted.

She'd fallen in love with him while they'd shared an apartment in Midtown Manhattan. She'd been thirty-one, divorcing from Scott and with a newborn. And he was there for her. She'd told herself that they were only going to be friends but it was hard not to love him, especially since he'd been so good with Rachel. But she knew that it would have been way too selfish of her to let him think that she could be with him forever. Unlike him, she wasn't immortal, or at least this form wasn't. She and the Phoenix were bonded for eternity and this meant that as long as there was a Phoenix, there would be Jean Grey. But her body could die and she and the Phoenix would be reborn God knew when from another Phoenix Egg. Logan might be able to live on and on and he might wait for her but it wouldn't be fair of her to ask him to pine after her for a hundred years. She was many things but selfish wasn't exactly one of them.

The waitress returned with their orders and then disappeared again.

"Who is this guy anyway?" asked Logan. He took a sip of his drink. Jean could sense his agitation.

"Well, officially, he's William Alexander Holderness, 12th Duke of Bennetshire."

"He's a duke?" asked Logan, one eyebrow arched ironically. "Seriously, Jeannie? Is this a romance novel? You went to Europe and met an aristocrat?"

"I actually met him two years ago," she told him. She took a sip of her coffee and allowed it to warm up her body. "I came here on vacation with Rachel to visit Charles and Moira in Scotland. But I went over to the English countryside too. It was Betsy's birthday and she was having a roaring party at Braddock Manor that Megan and Brian were hosting in her honor. So Charles, Moira, Rachel and I went. William was there. He apparently went to college with Brian and by extension knew Betsy. He's come over to New York to see me a lot since then but I never introduced him to Rachel because things were just…I don't know. Weird. I didn't want to thrust a man on her. So he always stayed at the Plaza."

"Oh," said Logan. "Well."

"And we're getting married," said Jean, holding up her hand. She saw his jaw drop. "He proposed this morning and I accepted."

"Jean Grey: a duchess," he said in a low voice. "Well, that's that then."

Jean immediately felt like she'd hurt him. And she was sorry for that. But it was for his own good. Hopefully he'd move on with his life now. They went through this once every three years since she'd asked him to leave her and Rachel alone after Rachel's first birthday. And she'd allowed him to come around under the pretense that he wanted to check up on an old friend.

But she loved William. And she was determined to be with him. And she couldn't exactly entertain Logan anymore after she was married to William. It would be too suspect.

"But I'm always a phone call away, okay?" she reassured him.

"Really? You could have fooled me, Jean."

Jean looked up and, standing right next to their table, was Emma Frost. She was wearing a pair of white jeans that Jean thought too tight and a white V-neck sweater with a V that was way too low for a woman in her late forties. But, essentially, Emma looked good.

She did a quick psy-scan and gathered that it was only Emma's astral form.

"Emma," growled Logan by way of greeting.

"What can we do for you?" asked Jean, rolling her eyes. "I'd say it was a pleasant surprise to see you but I've never been a fan of fallacies."

Logan chuckled and downed his coffee.

"We have a problem," said Emma, as cold as ever. "Rachel has manifested the Phoenix somehow and now she and Franklin Richards are gallivanting across space doing God knows what."

"Hm," said Jean. Then she took a long sip of her coffee, all the while staring woodenly at Emma. When she was done she said, "The Phoenix?"

Emma nodded. "Yes. You know the Phoenix best. Maybe you could find her."

"I suppose I can," said Jean. "It might take a little time. But I could find them."

"Good," said Emma. "Because Scott and I are worried sick about them."

"I'm sure you two are," said Logan. Jean wanted to run over to the other side of the table and just squeeze him tight. It was nice to know that he always had her back.

Anyway, Emma, I'm going to need you to shoo," said Jean. She waved her hand, causing Emma's astral form to disappear at will. She smiled at Logan. "I think I left my cell phone back at the house so she had to contact me this way. Duty calls."

"Doesn't this remind you of the old days?" asked Logan.

"Well, the Dark Phoenix thing wasn't me," said Jean. "But I know all about it." She pulled some cash out of her camel colored Marc by Marc Jacobs tote and put them down on the table. "I guess I should go deal with Rachel."

Logan got up and came around to her side, his body only inches away from her own. Suddenly he put his hand on the small of her back, pulling her into him, and planted a kiss on her that made her feel weak.

"That was for old times' sake," he said as he pulled away. "And I expect an invitation to that wedding. Front row."

* * *

The Present: Fifth Avenue, Manhattan

"You're my daughter, Rachel," said Jean, floating just feet away from her daughter, who was huddled up next to her boyfriend. "And I have absolutely no problem with you using my Phoenix Force."

Rachel looked perplexed. "So why did you open that wormhole?"

"I didn't," said Jean. She pointed her chin at Franklin.

"I didn't know what to do," he said, shrugging. "She's the Phoenix."

Jean couldn't help from cracking a smile. She'd always liked Franklin because he was a practical young man. He was frightened so he did what he thought was necessary. Rachel had always been a bit of a wild one and Jean had always felt like Franklin balanced Rachel out. Rachel could be very impractical at times but Frankie…he always made the right choice. He was powerful and he could basically do anything he wanted. But he didn't allow his power to control him.

"Rachel," said Jean, floating over to her daughter. She placed her hand on Rachel's shoulder and smiled at her. "You can't allow the Phoenix to get the better of you."

"I'm not," protested Rachel, pushing Jean's hand away.

"Really? Since when do you look like this?" asked Jean, folding her arms and looking quizzically at her daughter. "The Phoenix Force loves to corrupt your inner most desires. And yours have always been to be a swashbuckler and a hero. You've always wanted to explore the universe, Rachel, and you know it. The Phoenix Force just gave you the power to do it without any inhibitions."

Rachel bit her bottom lip, clearly thinking about everything Jean was saying. Jean just wanted to pull her only child into a hug and squeeze her tight. She'd missed Rachel. And there was a lot that she still had to tell her.

"Don't let it control you, Rachel," she said, pulling her daughter into her for a big hug. "Yes. Use the abilities that you've been given. And yes. Feel like a superstar because it totally rocks. I'd know. But don't allow the Phoenix to make you do stuff."

"Mom!" protested Rachel, even though she was squeezing Jean tightly. "You're totally smothering me!"

Jean used her abilities to shift into civilian clothes, doing the same for Frankie and Rachel.

"I know none of you are kids," said Jean, "but do you guys want to go to Serendipity 3 for some frozen hot chocolate?" She ran her fingers through her daughter's hair and glanced over at Frankie, who nodded vigorously.

Ruby Summers and Benji Blaire were standing by the door.

"The invitation includes the two of you as well," said Jean, smiling at them both. Jean had absolutely nothing against Ruby. It wasn't her fault that her father was a complete idiot.

Jean led the other two over to Ruby and Benji, whose shoulders she wrapped her arms around.

"Rachel, you have the coolest mom ever," said Benji.

"I know," said Rachel, taking Frankie's hand. "I don't deserve her."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Raven! Why do we always have to play this game?"

Raven Darkholme aka Mystique laughed as she dodged one of Domino's kicks and held her by the shoulder, thrusting her across the abandoned warehouse. But Neena Thurman aka Domino was skilled so she was able to catch herself and land seamlessly on her feet with a scowl on her face.

She and the rest of her team had been hunting down Mystique for a long time now. Mystique was nothing more than a terrorist hell-bent on what she called 'mutant supremacy' and it was getting really annoying. This time she was attacking government facilities in an attempt to get codes for US missiles. Mystique had been carrying on this way ever since the older X-Men were wearing spandex. Domino didn't know why the witch wouldn't die already. Somehow, when you think Mystique is dead, she never is.

Domino stretched her hand to her thigh instinctively but felt nothing.

She'd completely forgotten that the X-Men didn't really approve of guns. But when you don't have an aggressive ability, sometimes you have to use things like guns. But Nate wasn't budging when it came to her use of guns. Or knives.

Being an X-Man was a thankless job and she couldn't even have a little fun with it.

While she was unarmed and a couple feet away from Mystique, the former had managed to pull out a gun from somewhere and was pointing it directly at her and Domino immediately felt a longing for her team.

While she was trying to find a place to land the Blackbird, the rest of the team was searching for Mystique on the military base. Domino had seen Mystique slide out of some building like the snake that she was and she'd gone after her alone. She informed Nate through their psychic link and had followed Mystique to this abandoned warehouse on the far side of the base. She didn't know what was taking the X-Men so long but she needed them ASAP.

Mystique chuckled and tucked some of her blood-red hair behind an ear.

"I can't believe you're here all alone," she prodded. "But those Summers boys are something else. X-Man shouldn't have left you all by yourself, sweetie."

She shot at Domino.

Domino instinctively moved to the side but Mystique simply kept on shooting. Fortunately, Domino's mutant ability was allowing her to dodge every bullet. Her body was wired to avoid danger so the chances of one of Mystique's bullets getting too close to her were pretty low.

The gun was out of bullets and Mystique pulled out another one but, in the time it was taking her, Domino had managed to reach over to her and punch her hard across the face, flooring her.

"Well," started Mystique, wiping some blood off her bottom lip. "That was seriously unexpected. I underestimated you."

Domino kicked Mystique hard across the face, causing the woman to fly into a wall.

"Never underestimate me," said Domino, smiling down at Mystique, who was curled up in the fetal position. "Don't let the svelte figure fool you, darling."

"I don't!" said Mystique, grabbing Domino by the ankle so that she fell down on the cold, metal floor. Mystique was now standing up over Domino. "You're one of the X-Men. And you're not even a legacy like your boyfriend. So you have to have a little something."

Suddenly Domino started to feel her stomach churning and she threw up all over Mystique's shoes.

"What the hell?" yelled Mystique, taking a step back and shaking out one of her legs. "Did you just throw up on me?"

"Get away from her, Raven!"

Domino, still heaving on the ground, looked over at the entrance to the warehouse where her team was charging towards her and Mystique when she heard X-Man's voice. Mystique suddenly jumped through a broken window.

"Bishop, Beast and Colossus," said X-Man. "Get out there and find her! This has been going on long enough! I'll make sure Dom's okay."

The rest of the team complied while X-Man casually walked over to her. He stooped down next to her and ran his fingers through her black hair and she looked up into his perfect green eyes. Domino couldn't help from allowing him to wrap his arms around her and cradle her for a little bit. She knew that the both of them should really be out there looking for Mystique with the rest of the team but she couldn't help it.

"I'm so sorry that you had to face her alone," said X-Man. "She's a monster."

"It's okay," she said. "I'm fine."

"But I'm not," he said.

She turned to him, allowing him to cup her pale face with his hands. "What's wrong, Nate?"

"You need to stop. How far along are you?"

She rolled her eyes and got up without his help. "I don't have time for this," she said, stretching her hand out to help him up. "We have to find Mystique."

"This isn't the first time I've seen you throw up, Neena," said X-Man. "I think it's pretty obvious what's going on here."

"Nate," she said, turning her back on him. "I went to the doctor. I'm two months along. I just…I didn't want this to affect the team, you know?"

X-Man got up and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tight. "But it does, baby. You're pregnant. What if you get hurt and you lose the baby?"

"But we're very synchronized, Nate," she said, turning to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. He was just a couple of inches taller than she was. "Our team. We all complement each other."

"I'm sure we could get someone to take your place on the team for a little while," he said, touching her nose with his. "Just seven more months. Maybe Anya?"

Domino bit her bottom lip. So while she would be exiled to the X-Mansion, Anya Rasputin would be cavorting all over the world with her boyfriend? She didn't think so. That wasn't right. Anya and Nate had a history having both grown up at Xavier's together. And even though Anya had left the school years ago to pursue a career as a computer systems analyst at Rasputin Technology in Boston, Domino still wouldn't feel right allowing Nate to spend so much time with Anya alone. There was something about fighting next to someone that binds you for life. And that was especially true once there was a romantic connection. For Domino, nothing could compare to that feeling she had whenever she had Nate by her side. She knew that there was nothing that she couldn't do.

"And you won't be able to wear these kinds of outfits pretty soon, right?" said X-Man, running his fingers against her exposed stomach.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" she asked. She didn't think that it was any worse than what Aliya Bishop was wearing. Domino's outfit was fairly simple: a black sports bra with a big, red X going across her chest, leather fingerless gloves, black tights and black combat boots. It wasn't that provocative. Or at least it wasn't any more provocative than what anybody else wore.

"Anyway," said X-Man, touching one finger to his temple and squinting, "Mystique's gotten away. I'll have to ask Emma to see if she could track her with Cerebro when we get back to the Blackbird."

"Are you serious about me taking a break?" she asked.

"As a judge," he said. "I can't have you playing with our baby's life. I wonder if it's a boy or a girl?"

"I think it's a girl," she said. "I can feel it."

* * *

"Hi, Anya?...Hey! How are you going? It's Nate Summers. I have a really big favor to ask of you. So it turns out that Neena is pregnant…Thank you. I'm overjoyed. Anyway, she's pregnant so I don't think that she should be out in the field doing what we do and I couldn't think of anyone else who could take her place…That's great! Well come up here as soon as you can, okay? I'll set up a room for you…Alright. Thanks, Anya. Goodbye."

Nate turned around and a suit was being shoved in his face. When he pushed it aside Neena was standing there in a figure-hugging white dress that matched almost perfect with her pale, white skin. Her blue eyes were fixed on Nate's face.

"Put it on," she said. "We're going over to White Plains City Hall now and we're getting married."

"Neena," he said, taking the suit from her, "where is this coming from?"

"Nowhere," she said. "I'm having our baby, Nate. And we share this bedroom already and we do everything together. We're practically married already. Let's make it official."

"But what about the whole ceremony and the bridesmaids and all that?" he asked, as he placed the suit on the bed. "Don't you want that?"

She shook her head. "I don't need that. It isn't me at all. And besides: who'd sit on my side anyway? Remember? Mom's dead and all that? Marriage isn't a big deal for me, Nate. And this isn't my first. Remember? Thurman's my married name."

Nate knew that something was wrong so he couldn't help from stretching into her mind, even though he knew she'd punch him across the face.

"I thought we were over Anya," he said when he was done. "I can't believe you're even worried about her."

"What do you mean?" she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Nate, I'm going to be AWOL for the next seven months. Of course this is a problem for me. I'm not entirely comfortable with you swashbuckling with your ex-girlfriend while I'm lying in like some 16th Century noblewoman. I've seen _The Other Boleyn Girl_. I know what I'm talking about."

Nate couldn't help from chuckling and hiding his face. This was ridiculous.

"What's so funny?" she asked, punching him on the shoulder.

"Neena, if you want to get married, I have absolutely no problem with that," he said through his fingers. "But I have a family. I have a dad and a stepmom and two little sisters. And while you may not have any blood relatives, sweetie, the X-Men are and always will be your family. So they'll all sit on your side. So here's what: I accept your proposal. But let me go get a ring and then we'll talk to Emma and Dad about it and I'm sure she'll be thrilled to help you plan a wedding, okay?"

"Nate…" She put her head on his chest and her held her tight. "I love you so much."

"I love you more," he whispered. Then he kissed her on the crown of her head.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Sky Panther aka Azari T'Challa sat down at the edge of a building, looking down at the dots that represented New Yorkers beneath him. This building, an apartment building in Midtown Manhattan, was at least thirty stories high and most people would have been afraid. But he wasn't. If he lost his balance all he had to do was summon some winds to lift him. But he wasn't much of a klutz so he didn't intend to fall any time soon.

He scratched his chest. This material for this uniform was more than a little itchy, he had to admit, but it looked really good. He and the rest of his team—he liked to call them the All New, All Different X-Factor—basically were wearing the same outfit: a figure-hugging, white bodysuit. The distinction among each member of the team came in the form of what color the 'X' on their chest was. Sky Panther's was blue. His gloves, utility belt and boots were also blue.

And he didn't exactly like that he had to wear a mask either. He felt like he was hiding from the world, which wasn't exactly what he had in mind when X-Man had asked him to join the team. When he'd spoken to his dad about it, T'Challa had said that it was a great idea because no one would know who he was. So T'Challa and Ororo's enemies wouldn't bother to try and attack him. T'Challa had no problem with his son becoming a superhero. Ororo, on the other hand, wasn't exactly excited about the idea. She felt like crime fighting was more of an adult pursuit and had cited the fact that she'd only joined the X-Men when she was fully grown herself.

But at the end of the day, it was his choice. And both his parents were supporting him.

Sky Panther felt the BlackBerry he carried about in his belt vibrate so he quickly pulled it out. Well. Apparently a little bit of a ruckus was happening in the recently rebuilt Middle East Side, which was simply called Mutant Town, and it was trending worldwide on Twitter. He was the closest one there so he assumed that he should be the one to check it out first. Maybe this would be the team's chance to redeem itself after that fiasco of a debut.

Approximately one week ago, he and his team had decided that it was time to show the world who they were after a mutant in Albany, New York had manifested his anti-gravity abilities. Needless to say, it was a fiasco and the mutant had managed to levitate almost every house in his neighborhood. X-Man had tagged along so he was able to put the mutant to sleep but a lot of people got injured and some people recorded the team's failure. They were all over the news that night and Sky Panther was completely embarrassed.

This was their chance to change their public image.

Sky Panther dove off the building, allowing the air currents to lift him up. Beneath him people were pointing up at him. He always thought it kind of strange that New Yorkers were still surprised by superheroes. New York had to be one of the safest places in the world—since there was an a abundance of super-powered heroes—but probably the most dangerous as well—since there was also an abundance of super-powered villains. He liked to think of the city as his own Angel Grove and he and his friends were the resident Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Well, at least when the Avengers weren't hogging all the good saves.

Mutant Town was a complete mess.

All over the place mutants were attacking one another and fighting. There was a huge, green portal over Mutant Town and mutants and gun-wielding humans were tumbling out of it. Some landing seamlessly on their feet. Others hurt themselves. Sky Panther stretched his arm and the wind with it to capture some of the people falling out of the sky. The portal closed up suddenly.

_Viens ici! J'ai besoin de votre aide!_

Sky Panther stopped in the middle of the air, looking over his shoulders to see who had just spoken to him.

Suddenly he felt as if he had no control over his body. Or his abilities for that matter. Someone was in his head, forcing him to fire lightning at the gun-wielding people. And then something truly amazing happened: he felt a connection to the earth beneath him. A huge chunk of the street ascended and was lunged it at a group of humans, flooring them. He knew that he'd somehow connected with the earth.

He couldn't believe that he'd actually done that.

He started rubbing his hands together and flames engulfed them. He launched fireballs at some more gun-wielding humans, burning some of them to total crisps. He didn't know what he could do to stop himself. With one hand he was throwing some one side with the wind and with the other he was burning people. And he had no control over any of it.

Some of the mutants were able to scatter and then he felt like he was in control again. He called down a shower of rain to douse some of the flames that he'd inadvertently caused. By the time everything was said and done, the streets were clear except for one girl dressed in a dirty white shirt with a silver-and-navy-blue striped tie loosely wrapped around her neck, a ripped navy blue seersucker skirt, white knee-highs and scuffed black pumps: a perfect private school uniform.

She smiled up at him and beckoned him over.

"Je suis désolé," she said.

"I'm sorry, miss," said Sky Panther. "I don't speak French."

Then it all hit him at once.

"You were the one in my head!"

The girl twirled some of her long, jet-black hair around a finger and smiled up at him, making him blush. She was sort of pretty. She had smooth, light brown skin and beautiful brown eyes that were glittering as they looked up into his blue ones. She had full lips that were parted just a little. He couldn't help from thinking about how much they looked like they belonged on Angelina Jolie. She looked like she was just about his age.

"I'm sorry about that," said the girl, in a French accent. "I speak English. And very well too."

Sky Panther was still confused.

"I'm Nicky," she said, extending her hand out to him. He pumped it twice and let go. "And I apologize for using your body, Azari."

"How did you know that was my name?" he asked.

She touched her temple with a finger. "I'm a telepath, silly. I used your body because I gathered that you were the most powerful mutant in my vicinity. So I needed your help."

"But…all of that couldn't be me," he said. "I…can't make fire! Or manipulate earth!"

"Of course you can," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Or I wouldn't have been able to use all those abilities. Maybe you just haven't harnessed that ability yet. I'm so sorry if I ruined the big surprise for you. I could mind wipe you, if you like." She smiled ironically.

"No thanks."

Nicky leant into him and kissed him softly on the cheek. "I'd love to chat some more," she said, already turning on her heels, "but I have to go find my sister. Do you know where X-Factor Investigations can be found?"

"Wait," he said, grabbing her by the wrist. "Who's your sister?"

"M," said Nicole, tucking some of her unruly raven hair behind an ear. He noticed that this ear had an earring and the other one didn't.

"Monet St. Croix?" he asked.

"I really need her help, Azari," she said, lightly taking his hand off hers. "And thank you so much."

"Wait," he told her. "I'll go with you. I know where it is."

They jogged down the street until they arrived at the tall building that housed X-Factor Investigations. Sky Panther had only been there a couple of times in his life.

Nicky knocked on the door but nobody answered. She stared at the building, as if looking right through it, and then said, "Nobody's there. I…but I have to find Monet!"

Sky Panther grabbed her by the elbow, trying to calm her down. "Hey. What's going on? Maybe I could help."

Nicky, whose back was turned to him, was breathing heavily. "It's my father. And my sister. They have him. They're holding him. But I couldn't stay there anymore, Azari. I just…I couldn't! They said they would let him go but…they haven't. They wanted me and Claudette in exchange for him but…they still have him locked up at that _place_."

"What place?" he asked, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her to him. Her eyes were brimming with tears but it was apparent that she was holding them back. "Maybe I could help you, Nicky."

"Sky Panther?"

When he looked over his shoulder he smiled. "Miss Fantastic!"

"It's Invisible Girl now," she droned, sighing and folding her arms across her chest. "Dad made sure of that. He said I hadn't 'earned the right to use his name' or something equally bogus and condescending."

She was wearing the same outfit as his except with yellow embellishments. Her sandy blonde hair was blowing in the wind.

"Invisible Girl," started Sky Panther, "this is Nicky."

"Nicky St. Croix." She shook Invisible Girl's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nicky, since your sister isn't here, you should come to the X-Mansion with me," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We could probably all talk there. And maybe we could help you."

"I think…" She took a deep breath and started to fall over but Sky Panther held her up. "Thank you." Then she fainted.

* * *

Nicky could feel a soft, warm hand sweeping away hair from her brow as she started to come to. When she opened her eyes fully she realized that she was in an infirmary and the person soothing her was an older woman with dreadlocks, a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and a lab coat. She was smiling down at Nicky.

"Am I…okay?" asked Nicky.

"You're fine, sweetie," said the woman. "Just fine. No need to worry."

"Who are you?" asked Nicky, sitting up on the bed and looking about the room. There were other empty beds and computer equipment and other little knick knacks. It was the cutest little hospital Nicky had ever seen.

"Dr. Cecilia McCoy," said the woman, extending a hand for Nicky to shake.

Nicky shook it and smiled. "It's very nice to meet you, Dr. McCoy."

The door opened and Azari entered. He was wearing his X-Factor outfit but he wasn't wearing a mask so Nicky could see his handsome face. He was so cute. And so powerful.

"Hey," he said, slowly walking to the side of the bed and smiling down at her. "Are you okay?"

"Just peachy," she said, running her fingers against his forearm. She felt him tense up. She liked that he was getting a little uncomfortable around her. "Thank you for bringing me here. I feel a whole lot better."

"You were just tired," said Dr. McCoy. "But you'll be okay."

"And me and the rest of my team will help you find your dad," added Azari. "You're a mutant. One of us. And we look out for our own."

"Really?" asked Dr. McCoy, one eyebrow arched. "Isn't that more of an…X-Men pursuit, Azari?"

Azari took a deep breath. "No way. She didn't come to the X-Men; she came to me. And my team. So we'll help her find her dad."

"And my sister," said Nicky. "Claudette. She and I opened that portal. But she didn't come with me. She sort of…froze up when it was time to leave. I tried to convince her that Papa wouldn't want us as hostages. I told her that we would go find Monet and then we could all three find Papa. But she said that she didn't want to leave him alone up there."

"Up where exactly?" asked Dr. McCoy.

"This creepy floating thing in space," said Nicky, turning to the doctor. "It's like a big, ugly space ship. Super creepy."

"I think I know what you're talking about," said Dr. McCoy. "The High Evolutionary."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"…and you're lucky I was able to talk Emma and Scott into allowing you to attend Xavier's. I mean, nowhere else would have you. You got yourself kicked out of one of the best boarding schools in England! Do you know how expensive Rugby is? And why? Because you were hanging out with your friends in Ireland? Seriously?"

N'Dare T'Challa just looked out the window of the black Lincoln Town Car, totally ignoring her mother's rant. Yeah, she knew that it was bad that she'd missed out on the first couple of weeks of school but she really didn't care. This was pretty much the plan. She was supposed to get expelled from Rugby School, arguably the best school in the UK, so that she'd end up at Xavier's. Naturally, no respectable boarding school in Europe would accept her.

That was why she'd made the suggestion to her parents after she'd gotten expelled that they try to get her into Xavier's.

Unlike her little brother Azari, N'Dare wasn't a mutant. She'd silently borne her shame after she'd turned thirteen. She was always kind of expecting to develop some kind of cool mutant ability like her mother's. Now she was sixteen and she still hadn't. But she'd certainly learnt how to compensate with the help of an extremely special, though unlikely, friend.

"…and you wonder why your father worries about Wakanda after he's dead and gone?" continued Ororo T'Challa. She tucked some of her white hair behind her ear. "I mean, you're supposed to be responsible, N'Dare. You're sixteen-years-old. Your little brother is more responsible than you are."

"Azari is a freak," said N'Dare, finally turning to her mother. "No normal fourteen-year-old acts like he does. Does he even have any friends?"

"Of course he does, N'Dare," said Ororo, glaring at her eldest child. But N'Dare was unfazed. She never thought of her mom as the formidable Storm. She was just plain old annoying Mom. "And you shouldn't call him that. 'Freak' isn't a word that mutants are exactly proud of."

"Whatever, Mom," said N'Dare, looking back out the window.

The car sailed by a hair salon and N'Dare made sure to remember the address. She was so over this white hair of hers. It was time to dye it something less 'look-at-me'.

She'd tried to make it look a little edgy by cutting it into a fierce undercut over the summer vacation: the sides were low but the top was high enough for her to do all kinds of things with like slick it back or curl it dramatically. And she'd pierced each ear three extra times so now she always wore four gold hoops in each ear. She felt like it went well with the look that she'd recently adopted: a kind of rocker chick kind of thing. She'd even invested in a leather jacket and spiked, six-inch booties.

The car arrived at where N'Dare assumed was Xavier's. She used to come up to Westchester pretty often with her parents when she was a little kid but, once she'd been given a choice, she preferred spending her time with her friends back in the UK or hanging out in Wakanda with her aunt and other extended family members. And she had absolutely no business at Xavier's because she wasn't a mutant.

But she liked to think that she was something a lot more exciting.

The driver opened up her side and she stepped out and looked up at the huge, ivy-covered mansion that she was supposed to call home now. She was certainly going to be making the best of it. And she had her mission. She wasn't just here to study and keep out of trouble. There was one person in particular that she needed to see.

"N'Dare," said Emma Frost-Summers, opening up the tall front door of the mansion and smiling.

N'Dare couldn't help from noting that Emma hadn't aged a day since last they'd seen each other.

"You look beautiful," said Emma, pulling N'Dare's slender figure into her and squeezing her tight. "You should be a model."

"Over my dead body," said Ororo, scooting out of the car and placing her red Hermes Birkin Bag on her elbow. She walked over to them and kissed Emma on both cheeks before pulling away and flattening the front of her rose-colored Armani suit. Her long, white hair was falling in cascades down her back and swept away from her beautiful, brown face. "And even then, you'll have her father to deal with."

"Where should I put the bags?" asked the driver, pulling N'Dare's Louis Vuitton suitcases out of the trunk.

"I'll show you," said Rachel Grey-Summers, stepping out of Emma's shadow. "N'Dare, I'm the welcoming committee."

"Rachel, dear," said Ororo, walking over to Rachel and hugging her tight. "You look so pretty. How's your mother?"

"She's fine," said Rachel. "She was just here the other day."

"I'm sorry I missed her," said Ororo, playing with some of Rachel's burgundy hair. "Anyway, you girls run along. Me and Emma need to catch up."

N'Dare followed Rachel into the school while the driver followed them both with two of N'Dare's suitcases. She hadn't seen Rachel in ages but God was she beautiful. Rachel was tall and elegant and she seemed so sophisticated. They always used to play together whenever Ororo came to New York to have tea with Sue Richards once a month. The crew was Rachel, N'Dare and the Richards kids.

But even that had fallen to the wayside when N'Dare had a choice.

"Where are Frankie and Val?" asked N'Dare. "And Ruby? And Benji? And even my snot-nosed little brother?"

"Hm," was all Rachel said.

They arrived at a bedroom and Rachel opened up the door and allowed the driver to place the bags next to one of the beds before dashing off to retrieve the other bags.

"You're sharing a room with Val," said Rachel, examining her red-painted nails. "Have fun."

"Wait!" exclaimed N'Dare, as the driver disappeared. "Seriously. Where is everybody?"

Rachel took a deep breath. "You didn't hear it from me, but they've all been out playing superhero while I have to stay here and just…be."

"Superhero?" asked N'Dare, perplexed. "They're fighting crime?"

"Doing mutant PR," said Rachel. "Nothing _you _have to worry about."

N'Dare rolled her eyes, feeling sidelined again. "So why aren't you fighting alongside them?"

"Apparently I'm a problem," said Rachel. "Anyway, enjoy your room."

Rachel stepped out.

N'Dare sat down on the edge of the bed on the empty side of the room, thinking about all that she had to do.

"You know I always know when you think of me, don't you?"

When N'Dare looked over her shoulder, her mentor was sprawled out on the bed.

When N'Dare had first met Spiral, she'd been completely freaked out. Spiral was tall and she had so many arms and she was completely powerful. But she had also made N'Dare feel special in the way that she'd always wanted to feel; the way being a mutant would have made her feel.

N'Dare was a formidable sorceress.

She knew that her mother had the potential but Ororo had never pursued it. But, with Spiral's training, N'Dare could do a whole lot. And after secretly training under Spiral since she was thirteen, it was time for her to pay her back in kind.

"Is he here?"

N'Dare looked away and bit her bottom lip.

"Is he here?"

"No."

"Then find him."

The driver came back in with two more suitcases but N'Dare knew that he couldn't see Spiral. It wasn't really her. It was more like an astral projection. N'Dare hadn't quite mastered doing that but she would eventually.

He stepped out again.

"Could you not rush me, Rita?"

"It's Spiral."

"Whatever, Rita."

"You're so insubordinate! Don't mess this up! And you know I'll be watching."

Spiral disappeared.

N'Dare picked up herself and decided to explore the school a little bit and hopefully run into who she needed to. She felt like she had to repay Spiral for everything that she'd done for her. She didn't know what was Spiral's obsession with Benji Blaire but all she knew was that she was supposed to meet him and make him fall in love with her but remain completely aloof. Which wasn't hard for N'Dare to do.

She wasn't exactly an emotional person. She'd liked a couple of guys and had gone on a couple of dates but she'd never had a steady boyfriend. And she didn't intend to rush it either. But, for now, she was just supposed to give Benji a hard time until she was given any other instructions.

"N'Dare?"

She hadn't even realized that she'd made it to the ground floor of the school, where her brother appeared almost out of nowhere. A pretty girl was right up under him.

"Is that your girlfriend?" prodded N'Dare. "Sweetie, you could do so much better than this little dweeb of a brother I have."

"I think he's very sweet," said the girl, in her decidedly French accent.

"Your funeral," said N'Dare, shrugging. "Why are you looking so stupid, Azari? I heard you were playing superhero games but I didn't think you'd wanna look this silly."

"Bite me," said Azari. "Have you seen Aunt Emma anywhere? We need to talk with her ASAP."

"She's somewhere with Mom."

"I'll talk with you later," said Azari, taking the French girl by the hand and leading her away.

N'Dare decided that she wanted to see what the pool looked like. Her memories were of it being really huge and really blue but she wanted to see what it was like now that she was a little older.

And then she saw him.

Benji was seated by the pool in an outfit just like her brother's and he smiled when they locked eyes. He'd certainly grown up, she realized. And she liked what she was seeing.

"Is that N'Dare T'Challa?" he called.

"Benji Blaire?"

She casually strode over to him and sat down on the pool chair next to his. He looked positively gorgeous in the sunset. But she knew that she was looking even better.

"Haven't seen you in forever," she said, in her most alluring voice.

"Maybe you just haven't been looking hard enough," he said. His phone started ringing and he quickly answered it, mumbled some words, and then said, "I'll talk to you when I'm free." He got up and gently nudged her with his shoulder. "Nice seeing you, T'Challa."

N'Dare could feel her cheeks getting warmer as she followed him with her eyes as he walked away. The last time she'd seen Benji, he'd been small, chubby and greasy-faced. This Benji resembled the old one…but he was more like Benji 2.0.

She shook her head, willing her emotions away. She had a mission. And no pretty face was going to make her forget that.

Nothing would.


End file.
